ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – Erbil’s Criminal Court on Tuesday issued the death sentence against a well-known surgeon charged with killing four of his own family members in a homicidal raid in March.

In March, Sirwan Mahmoud, an Erbil surgeon, broke into his in-laws’ house and opened fire on the family, killing his own wife, his mother-in-law, father-in-law, wife’s sister, and injuring a child in the process.

The court “issued three sentences against him. For killing the mother-in-law and father-in-law and injuring the child, he was sentenced to death by hanging. Also, for killing his wife and his wife's sister, he was sentenced to life imprisonment,” a source from the court told The New Region.

The source noted that after the court issues a death sentence, the case is then forwarded to the Court of Cassation, where several judges review the case to confirm the ruling. Once approved, the case is then sent to the Kurdistan Region Presidency to approve the execution.

“After a death sentence is issued, both the plaintiff and the defendant can request cassation (appeal), but if the Court of Cassation deems the sentence correct, then it cannot be appealed under any circumstances,” the source added.

Following the incident, relatives of Mahmoud’s wife, herself a gynecologist, revealed that the attack was prompted by her refusal to return to live with Mahmoud and demanding a divorce after he intended to marry a second wife.

The Kurdistan Region currently maintains a moratorium on executions, in place since 2008. Courts in the Region continue to issue death sentences without carrying executions, with the subjects serving life prison sentences instead.

A rare exception to the Region’s de facto moratorium was the execution a man and his two wives, charged with the kidnapping and murder of two young girls, in August 2015.