ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A Baghdad court on Sunday sentenced seven drug traffickers to death, including a convict of foreign nationality, state media reported, as authorities scramble to control the rising spread of narcotics in the country. “The court issued its first death sentence against four convicts for importing and exporting narcotic substances, and issued a second judgement against three convicts, including one of foreign nationality, for importing narcotic substances in the country,” state media said, citing a court statement. The penalties were handed in accordance with Article 27 of the Iraqi Narcotics and Psychotropic Substances Law, the statement added. The Article states that any individual charged with exporting, importing, producing, or planting narcotic substances shall be either sentenced to death or life imprisonment. There has been an alarming rise in drug dealing and use in Iraq in recent years, despite strict measures taken by the government to curb the phenomenon. Iraq’s Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani has ordered the establishment of rehabilitation centers in all Iraqi provinces, excluding the Kurdistan Region, as part of his cabinet’s commitment to combat drugs with the same determination as it fights terrorism. In 2023, more than 19,000 people were arrested across Iraq on drug-related charges and over 15 tons of psychotropic substances were seized. The interior ministers of Iraq, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon held a quadrilateral meeting in Amman in mid-February, and agreed to establish a joint communications cell to keep up cooperation on addressing the alarming rise of narcotics in their countries.
