An Iraqi demonstrator holds the Koran during a protest near the Green Zone against the burning of a copy of the Koran and the Iraqi flag in the Swedish capital Stockholm, in Baghdad, Iraq July 22, 2023.
REUTERS/Khalid Al-Mousily/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsBAGHDAD, Sept 13 (Reuters) - An Iraqi court sentenced 18 police officers to prison after they were found guilty of failing to prevent protesters from setting fire to the Swedish embassy in Baghdad in July over a planned Koran burning in Stockholm.
It says the officers were convicted of "abstaining from their duties to protect the Swedish embassy and to stop the persons who stormed and set fire to it".
Hundreds of protesters stormed the Swedish embassy in Baghdad in July and set it on fire over a planned Koran burning in Stockholm.
Anti-Islam protesters, one of whom is an Iraqi immigrant to Sweden who burned the Koran outside a Stockholm mosque in June, had applied for and received permission from Swedish police to burn the Koran outside the Iraqi embassy.
Persons:
Khalid Al, Ahmed Rasheed, Timour, Nick Macfie
Organizations:
Green, REUTERS, Rights, Reuters, Thomson
Locations:
Iraqi, Swedish, Stockholm, Baghdad, Iraq, Rights BAGHDAD, Sweden