The Iraqi Parliament finishes reading the anti-cybercrime law

Shafaq News / The Iraqi Council of Representatives has finished reading and discussing the anti-cybercrime law.

This law raises the concerns of local and international human rights organizations which consider that the law will be a government weapon against activists.

The Parliament Media Department said in a statement the representatives' interventions focused on taking into account the balance between the maintenance of freedoms and the preservation of public social security and the need for proportionality between the crime and the penalty specified for it.

The MPs demanded not to use the law in a way that would threaten public freedoms with exaggerated penalties, touching on, "the lack of acceptance of the absurdity that is currently taking place on social media and resorting to crime experts and the Supreme Judicial Council to consult the issue of penalties stipulated in the law."

In his turn, Al-Halbousi called for, "not to prejudice the freedoms guaranteed by the constitution, especially freedom of the press, expression of opinion and publicity, and to distinguish between those who insult, and those who make constructive criticism."

The Iraqi Observatory for Press Freedoms had considered in a statement a few days ago that ratification of the law in turbulent and unstable political and social conditions, and the inclusion of journalists and the media in the law, would threaten freedom of expression and expose writers, journalists and bloggers to trial and imprisonment.

The Observatory indicated that the law was not presented to the people, nor was it discussed with organizations concerned with freedom of expression and human rights. The observatory believed that this law, "may put half of the people in prison."