ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – An 18-year-old Iraqi model and blogger, Noor al-Dulaimi, was recently suffocated to death at a hotel in Erbil and her body set on fire at a distant location, Erbil’s police directorate said on Wednesday.
The police statement added that a Syrian national confessed to killing the Baghdadi descendant after the two “had an altercation” at a hotel late at night. He reportedly suffocated Dulaimi and stole her belongings and attempted to “escape punishment by taking the woman’s corpse to a distant location and setting it ablaze.”
The Erbil Police on Wednesday published CCTV footage captured at dawn on Tuesday showing the purported killer stopping at a gas station and purchasing a type of fuel. The published footage then shows a distant fire at Erbil’s doorstep, believed to be the flames from the blaze set by the suspected killer torching the victim’s body.
The Erbil police have arrested the suspect and he will face legal action under Article 406 of Iraq’s Penal Code, which stipulates that “any person who willfully kills another is punishable by death,” including if “the offender mutilates the body of the victim.”
While originally from Baghdad, Dulaimi has been living in Erbil with her two sisters for eight years. Her relatives alleged that the 18-year-old suspect's motive was theft.
Speaking to Rudaw’s Farhad Dolamari, Noor’s sister Shams al-Dulaimi raised concerns about potential accomplices in the crime questioning “how did the killer manage to carry a dead body out of the hotel, move it to a distant place and set it ablaze” suggesting that “it makes no sense that someone could have carried out such a crime alone.”
Shams alleged that the Erbil police initially informed her that “two killers, a Syrian man and a Kurdish man from Erbil” participated in the crime but later said it was only one Syrian national. Speaking to Rudaw as well, Noor’s other sister Marwa al-Dulaimi urged interrogating hotel workers who may have witnessed or had knowledge of the crime. It is worth noting that following a forensic medical examination Dulaimi’s body was returned to Baghdad and her relatives have filed a lawsuit.
