BAGHDAD: An Iraqi court on Sunday handed down a death sentence to a former police officer on charges of murdering well-known political and security expert Hisham al-Hashimi in mid-2020.
In a brief statement, the Iraqi Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) said that a Baghdad criminal court “issued its death sentence against the criminal Ahmed Hamdawi Awaid for murdering security expert Hisham al-Hashimi” in accordance with the anti-terrorism law.
On July 6, 2020, al-Hashimi was shot dead by gunmen who opened fire on his car near his house in the Zaiyouna neighborhood of eastern Baghdad.
A man who identified himself as Ahmed Hamdawi Awaid al-Kanani, a 36-year-old police first lieutenant from Iraq’s Interior Ministry, confessed to killing Hisham al-Hashimi with his police pistol while riding two motorcycles and driving a car with three other accomplices, a video footage aired by the Iraqi official Iraqiya channel in July 2021 showed.
Al-Hashimi, who specialized in the affairs of the Sunni and Shiite armed groups, is known for his support for the anti-government protests that broke out in October 2019 and his strong criticism of armed groups and militias.
