ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – An Iraqi court on Tuesday sentenced the former head of an agriculture ministry department in Baghdad to death for allegedly helping Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) affiliated fighters storm the department in July and clash with security forces that left one officer dead. 

An attack by Kataib Hezbollah, a powerful Iran-backed armed group affiliated with the PMF, on an agriculture ministry department in Baghdad in late July killed three people, including a member of the security forces. Baghdad at the time confirmed that the assailants were PMF members. 

Iraq’s Supreme Judicial Council said that Ayad Kadhim Ali, the convict, “stormed the Baghdad agriculture directorate with an armed group” after a decision was made to relieve him of his duties and assign a replacement. 

The storming of the department, in Baghdad’s Karkh area, triggered clashes with security forces that left an officer, a civilian, and a Kataib Hezbollah member dead. 

The decision was issued in accordance with Article Four of Iraq’s Anti-Terrorism Law, which mandates the death sentence for anyone who partakes in a “terrorist act” and life imprisonment for anyone found guilty of intentionally concealing a “terrorist deed” or sheltering suspected “terrorists.” 

An investigative committee launched by Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani concluded in August that the attack was carried out by Kataib Hezbollah members. 

The forces “operated without orders or approval” and “used weapons against members of the security forces,” Iraq’s Joint Operations Command said in a statement. 

The US Embassy in Baghdad offered condolences a day after the attack “to the families of the victims who were killed by Kataib Hezballah, a US-designated terrorist organization within the Popular Mobilization Forces,” while calling on the Iraqi government to hold the perpetrators accountable.