Eighteen Iraqi police officers were sentenced to three years in prison on Tuesday for failing to prevent protesters from storming and setting fire to the Swedish embassy in Baghdad in July, two security sources told AFP.

In the middle of the night on July 20, supporters of powerful religious leader Moqtada Sadr set fire to the Swedish embassy in Baghdad in retaliation for two incidents in Stockholm in which Iraqi refugee Salwan Momika desecrated a copy of the Koran. .

An internal security forces tribunal in Baghdad on Tuesday found 18 police officers guilty of “dereliction of duty” for allowing protesters to storm and set fire to the embassy, ​​according to a certified copy of the verdict seen by AFP. confirmed by a high-ranking official of the Ministry of Internal Affairs present at the meeting.

According to the same source, the convicted can file an appeal. A second senior Interior Ministry official confirmed on condition of anonymity that all 18 officers had been convicted.

Eight officers were sentenced to three years of imprisonment, seven to two years and three months of imprisonment, three more to one year and six months of imprisonment.

Some of those officers were dismissed from service permanently, according to the verdict. The convicts came from various agencies, including the Baghdad police and the force that guards embassies and diplomats.

Multiple desecrations of the Koran this summer in Sweden and Denmark have sparked outrage in the Muslim world and led to tensions between those Scandinavian countries and several Muslim countries in the Middle East.

In July, Baghdad announced the expulsion of the Swedish ambassador.

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