Ali Zuweid's Political Programme
Proposed legislation · State, Constitution, Justice, Rights and Governance
New Iraqi Penal Code Bill
A modern federal criminal code replacing the 1969 law, unifying liability and punishment, protecting society against serious crime and recalibrating criminalisation under the Constitution, rights and legality.
Executive Summary
The bill replaces Penal Code No. (111) of 1969 with a unified modern criminal-law system after more than five decades of piecemeal amendments and special penal decisions. It rebuilds the general part around legality, proportionality, intent and personal responsibility, expands non-custodial alternatives, strictly limits the death penalty and independently defines torture, enforced disappearance and international crimes.
It also addresses accumulated problems: abolishing so-called honour-based mitigation of violent offences; ending subsequent marriage's effect on sexual-offence prosecution; removing criminalisation of mere insult to authorities or religious ideas while retaining prohibitions on threats and incitement to violence; replacing vague morality offences with defined harm-based crimes; and modernising property offences, fraud, organised crime and legal-person criminal liability.
The Code does not absorb all specialised criminal legislation. Terrorism, drugs, trafficking, money laundering, weapons, technology offences and other matters remain in special laws, while this Code's general part becomes the common reference for legality, intent, participation, punishment and proportionality, preventing conflicting legislative islands.
Constitutional and legal context
Penal Code No. (111) of 1969, as amended, remains Iraq's general penal code. Law No. (10) of 2024 amended Articles (384), (11) and (226), including broad criminalisation under “filial disobedience” and retention of insulting authorities as an offence with an exception for criticism protected by expression. Iraqi judicial debate itself has identified the need for a new code consolidating scattered provisions rather than further piecemeal additions.
Iraq's Constitution establishes life, security, liberty, legal equality, prohibition of torture, fair trial and expression. Iraq is also bound by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Convention against Torture, International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance and Genocide Convention. Official international observations identify recurring domestic gaps, particularly torture and disappearance definitions, the death penalty's breadth and discriminatory or expression-restricting provisions.
The latest significant official amendment in 2024 changed only three articles, rather than rebuilding the Code, while many special penal laws remained outside it. The proposal therefore chooses repeal and replacement with a transitional period and alignment package instead of another patch to the 1969 law.
Proposed legislative policy
- A modern general code: A unified general part governing special penal laws unless they provide stronger safeguards.
- Criminalising harm, not opinion: Protect the State and society from violence, corruption and fraud without shielding officials or ideas from criticism through punishment.
- An exceptional, non-mandatory death penalty: Confine it to the gravest intentional killings and international crimes involving killing, reviewing all unexecuted death sentences inconsistent with that limit.
- Express criminalisation of torture and enforced disappearance: Definitions consistent with international obligations, command responsibility and no defence of superior orders.
- Sexual and family justice: Rape rests on absence of consent without marital exemption; subsequent marriage does not terminate prosecution; honour motives do not mitigate offences.
- Alternatives to short detention: Proportionate fines, community service and community supervision reduce unnecessary custody without weakening deterrence against violence.
- Corporate liability: Fines, confiscation, compliance programmes and supervision for offences committed for a legal person's benefit.
- Phased alignment: Retain special laws subject to the general part and require a government alignment package within one year.
Text of the bill
Book One — General Provisions
Chapter One — Legality, Scope and Application
Article (1) — Title and scope
This Law shall be called the “Iraqi Penal Code”. It governs its offences, penalties and measures and the general rules for offences in special penal laws, except special provisions affording stronger rights protection or more precisely defined liability.
Article (2) — Legality
No offence, penalty or criminal measure exists without a provision effective before the act. Analogy, expansive interpretation, custom or administrative orders shall not create offences or aggravate penalties.
Article (3) — Strict Interpretation
Criminal provisions shall ensure legal certainty and protect constitutional rights. Genuine remaining uncertainty after interpretative methods are exhausted shall be resolved by the narrower construction of criminal liability.
Article (4) — More Favourable Law
A law enacted after the offence but before final judgment that favours the accused shall apply. If a later law decriminalises conduct, prosecution and punishment shall cease and criminal consequences be expunged under law.
Article (5) — No Retroactive Criminalisation or Aggravation
No provision creating or expanding an offence, aggravating punishment or narrowing justification or exemption shall apply to acts preceding commencement.
Article (6) — Territoriality
This Code applies to offences wholly or partly committed in Iraq, or producing a substantial intended or foreseeable consequence there, and offences aboard Iraqi ships and aircraft under international law.
Article (7) — Personal Jurisdiction
This Code applies to Iraqis committing abroad a felony punishable in that country upon return to Iraq, unless finally tried there with fair-trial safeguards.
Article (8) — Protection of Essential Interests
This Code may apply to foreigners acting abroad directly against Iraq's independence, territorial integrity or external security, or counterfeiting its currency or sovereign seals, under Criminal Procedure Code jurisdictional conditions.
Article (9) — International-Crime Jurisdiction
Iraqi courts have jurisdiction over offences for which operative law or a binding treaty requires jurisdiction, and genocide, crimes against humanity, torture, enforced disappearance and war crimes within this Code's and international law's limits.
Article (10) — Immunities
Constitutional, international-law and treaty immunities shall be observed. Immunity neither justifies conduct nor negates the offence, but procedurally limits prosecution within legal bounds.
Article (11) — Double Jeopardy
No person shall be retried for the same act after a competent court's final acquittal or conviction, subject to special retrial and foreign-judgment rules in the Criminal Procedure Code.
Article (12) — Offence Classification
An offence is a felony where the maximum penalty exceeds five years' imprisonment or is life imprisonment or death; a misdemeanour where the maximum is detention or imprisonment not exceeding five years; and a contravention where the principal penalty is a minor fine with a statutory limit.
Article (13) — Special Laws
This Code's general provisions apply to special-law offences. Special laws shall not impose custodial liability without a mental element except expressly defined limited regulatory violations, nor a death penalty beyond this Code's restrictions.
Article (14) — Juveniles
Adult penalties shall not apply to persons under eighteen at the time of the act. Juvenile liability and measures follow juvenile-justice law, children's best interests, rehabilitation and custody only as a last resort.
Chapter Two — Elements of Offences and Liability
Article (15) — Acts and Omissions
Offences arise through positive acts or omissions of legally required acts with the necessary causation and mental element. Omission liability requires a specific legal duty and ability to act without unreasonable danger.
Article (16) — Criminal Intent
Intent exists where the perpetrator knows the offence's material elements and wills the conduct or result.
Article (17) — Conditional Intent
A perpetrator is treated as intending a result where they foresee it as likely or seriously possible and accept proceeding nevertheless, provided the law recognises this form of intent as sufficient.
Article (18) — Negligence
A negligent offence arises where ordinary care required in the circumstances is breached and the result was foreseeable and avoidable. Negligence is punishable only by express provision.
Article (19) — Mistake of Fact
Intent is absent where an honest factual mistake, if true, would negate an offence element, unless the mistake results from legally punishable negligence.
Article (20) — Ignorance of Law
Ignorance is no excuse. Exceptionally, an unavoidable legal mistake may negate specific intent or mitigate punishment where a competent authority supplied an erroneous official interpretation relied upon in good faith.
Article (21) — Causation
Liability for a result requires conduct substantially causing it and no intervening independent, abnormal cause that could not reasonably be foreseen.
Article (22) — Attempt
Attempt means intentionally beginning execution of a felony or misdemeanour with intent to complete it, where execution stops or fails for reasons beyond the perpetrator's will. Mere intention or preparation is not punishable unless independently criminal.
Article (23) — Voluntary Withdrawal
Anyone voluntarily withdrawing before completion and actually preventing the result is exempt from attempt punishment, while remaining liable for other completed offences.
Article (24) — Perpetrators and Accomplices
A perpetrator commits the offence alone, jointly or through a person lacking responsibility as an instrument. An accomplice intentionally instigates or provides substantial intentional assistance.
Article (25) — Limits of Accomplice Liability
An accomplice is liable only within their intent and reasonably foreseeable results of the common plan. Unknown personal aggravating circumstances do not extend to them.
Article (26) — Unsuccessful Incitement
Where incitement targets a serious felony but neither commission nor execution begins, it is punishable only if expressly criminalised in itself to protect an essential interest.
Article (27) — Liability of Persons with Protective Duties
Anyone with a special legal, occupational or contractual duty to protect a person or prevent danger is liable for intentional omission substantially causing the result.
Article (28) — Legal-Person Liability
Private legal persons are criminally liable for offences committed in their name or interest by authorised managers or representatives, or through serious oversight and compliance failures. Natural-person liability remains.
Article (29) — Public Bodies
Legal-person penalties do not apply to the State, constitutional authorities or governorates performing sovereign functions, without prejudice to officials' liability, compensation or administrative accountability.
Chapter Three — Justifications and Grounds Excluding Responsibility
Article (30) — Lawful Defence
Necessary, proportionate action against an ongoing or imminent unlawful attack on person, sexual inviolability, liberty or property is not criminal, provided force does not manifestly exceed necessity.
Article (31) — Defence of Others
Defence of others follows self-defence conditions, assessed against facts reasonably perceptible to the defender at the time.
Article (32) — Lethal Force
Force likely to cause death is permissible only against imminent death, serious harm or serious life-threatening violence, never merely to protect property.
Article (33) — Necessity
Conduct preventing an immediate serious danger not caused by the actor is justified where no less harmful means exists and harm avoided clearly exceeds harm caused.
Article (34) — Duress
A person acting under immediate threats of death or serious harm to themselves or others is not liable where resistance could not reasonably be expected. This excuse extends to genocide or intentional killing only within the narrowest international-law limits.
Article (35) — Consent
Consent is recognised if free, informed, legally competent and concerning a disposable right. It does not justify death or serious injury except lawful medical, sporting or other activities.
Article (36) — Medical Acts
Lawful medical or surgical treatment by qualified practitioners following scientific standards and informed consent, or urgent medical necessity under law, is not criminal.
Article (37) — Performance of Duty
Acts required or expressly authorised by law are justified within legal limits and necessity. Administrative or security orders alone do not legitimise criminal conduct.
Article (38) — Unlawful Orders
Subordinates remain liable for orders they know unlawful or whose unlawfulness is obvious to an ordinary person in their position. Orders for genocide, torture, enforced disappearance or unlawful killing are manifestly invalid.
Article (39) — Absence of Capacity
A person whose serious mental or intellectual disorder at the time removed capacity to understand the act's nature or unlawfulness or control conduct is not liable. Courts may impose proportionate treatment subject to periodic review.
Article (40) — Diminished Capacity
Substantially reduced but not absent understanding or control may mitigate punishment and justify appropriate treatment.
Article (41) — Involuntary Intoxication
Forced or unforeseeable alcohol or drug intoxication may remove or diminish capacity according to its actual effect. Voluntary consumption does not excuse liability.
Article (42) — Exceeding Justification
Good-faith excess in defence, necessity or authority caused by severe situational fear or distress may mitigate punishment according to its degree, unless deliberate or grave.
Book Two — Penalties, Measures and Individualised Sentencing
Chapter One — Types of Penalties
Article (43) — Punishment Principles
Punishment rests on legality, proportionality, personal responsibility, necessity, reintegration, public protection and reparation. Degrading, cruel, inhuman or grossly disproportionate sanctions are prohibited.
Article (44) — Principal Penalties
Natural-person penalties comprise death in specified exceptional cases, life imprisonment, fixed-term imprisonment, detention, fines, community service and lawful community supervision.
Article (45) — Death Penalty
Death may be imposed only on an adult intentionally causing death through specified aggravated homicide, genocide, a crime against humanity or a war crime involving intentional killing, with direct personal responsibility proved beyond reasonable doubt.
Article (46) — Death Is Never Mandatory
No offence carries mandatory death. Courts imposing it shall explain why life imprisonment is insufficient; presidential constitutional pardon or commutation powers remain in every case.
Article (47) — Excluded Cases
Death shall not be imposed for offences committed under eighteen, on pregnant persons, or where serious intellectual or psychiatric disability substantially reduces understanding of conduct or punishment. Stronger Criminal Procedure Code safeguards apply.
Article (48) — Life Imprisonment
Life imprisonment means confinement without a predetermined term, with effective judicial review for possible parole after twenty-five years. Review gives no automatic release entitlement.
Article (49) — Fixed-Term Imprisonment
Felony imprisonment exceeds five years and may reach thirty unless a lower maximum is specified. Related acts shall not produce aggregate custody exceeding thirty years, except multiple intentional killings or serious international crimes.
Article (50) — Detention
Misdemeanour detention ranges from twenty-four hours to five years. Non-custodial alternatives shall be preferred where offences involve no violence, exploitation or serious societal danger.
Article (51) — Fines
Fines use statutory financial penalty units whose basic value is periodically adjusted by published decision according to the consumer-price index, without changing legislatively prescribed unit numbers. Courts shall consider means when allowing instalments or substitution.
Article (52) — No Automatic Detention for Inability to Pay
Genuine inability to pay shall not automatically become detention. Proportionate payment plans or community service may substitute, without prejudice to deliberate refusal despite ability.
Article (53) — Community Service
Community service may be imposed for misdemeanours or instead of short detention with the convicted person's consent and verified health and social suitability, without degradation or private benefit.
Article (54) — Community Supervision
Courts may impose time-limited, judicially reviewable community supervision with treatment, education, occupational or victim non-contact requirements.
Article (55) — Confiscation
Courts shall confiscate criminal instruments, proceeds and benefits proportionately while protecting good-faith third parties. General confiscation of property is prohibited.
Article (56) — Disqualification from Rights or Office
Temporary exclusion from an office, profession or activity is permissible where directly misused in the offence and necessary to prevent recurrence, with scope and duration specified in the judgment.
Article (57) — Legal-Person Penalties
Legal persons may face fines, confiscation, restitution, compensation, temporary activity bans, compliance programmes and independent monitoring. Dissolution requires establishment primarily for serious crime or conversion of principal activity to it.
Chapter Two — Sentencing Rules
Article (58) — Individual Proportionality
Within statutory limits, courts shall assess harm, intent, role, planning, record, recurrence risk and post-offence conduct without unlawful discrimination.
Article (59) — General Aggravating Circumstances
Aggravation includes abuse of power or trust, targeting apparent vulnerability, organised-group offending, weapons increasing danger, repeated dangerous offences and offending before children where harm increases.
Article (60) — Discriminatory Motive
Offences wholly or partly motivated by hostility on grounds protected by equality legislation may receive proportionate aggravation within statutory limits, without criminalising mere opinion.
Article (61) — Abuse of Public Office
Punishment is aggravated where public officials or service assignees misuse authority, information or State instruments to facilitate or conceal crime, unless already an offence element.
Article (62) — Mitigation
Mitigation may reflect a minor role, diminished capacity, serious unlawful provocation short of defence, actual efforts to rescue victims, restitution and compensation, or substantial cooperation with justice.
Article (63) — No Honour-Based Mitigation
So-called honour, cleansing shame or victims' personal or family conduct shall not excuse or mitigate homicide, injury, sexual offences or domestic violence.
Article (64) — Settlement and Withdrawal
Withdrawal extinguishes public prosecution only for expressly specified offences. Marriage or family reconciliation shall not end prosecution or suspend punishment for violence or sexual assault.
Article (65) — Restitution and Compensation
Courts may order return of money, property or its value and direct compensation where procedure permits, without prejudice to further civil claims.
Article (66) — Multiple Offences
Separate acts constituting independent offences shall each receive a sentence, with execution organised under the Criminal Procedure Code to avoid duplicate punishment for the same act and preserve overall proportionality.
Article (67) — One Act with Multiple Classifications
Where one act meets several criminal descriptions, the specific or more serious provision capturing the conduct shall apply without cumulative penalties for the same element.
Article (68) — Recidivism
Recidivism requires an intentional similar or related offence within a statutory period after final conviction. It permits exceeding the offence maximum only by express provision.
Article (69) — Stay of Execution
Short misdemeanour detention may be suspended where circumstances and the convicted person's character show custody unnecessary for public protection, with clear conditions and a probation period.
Article (70) — Conditional Release
Conditional release may follow the period prescribed by penal-enforcement law where genuine rehabilitation progress and no unacceptable risk are established. The decision shall be appealable.
Article (71) — Rehabilitation of Legal Status
The law shall regulate expunging or limiting conviction consequences after specified periods without reoffending, supporting reintegration without erasing victims' rights or necessary sensitive-profession restrictions.
Article (72) — Social Circumstances
Poverty, unemployment or social status alone shall not aggravate punishment. Non-custodial alternatives shall account for care responsibilities, disability and ability to comply.
Article (73) — International Crimes, Torture and Enforced Disappearance
Genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, torture and enforced disappearance shall have no limitation period or amnesty producing impunity for grave violations.
Book Three — Serious International Crimes and Crimes against Human Dignity
Chapter One — Genocide and Crimes against Humanity
Article (74) — Genocide
Genocide means, with intent to destroy a national, ethnic, racial or religious group wholly or partly: killing members, causing serious bodily or mental harm, deliberately imposing destructive living conditions, measures preventing births, or forcibly transferring children to another group.
Article (75) — Genocide Penalty
Genocide carries life imprisonment. Death may be imposed where the convicted person personally committed intentional killing within the crime and this Code's conditions are met. Attempt, direct public incitement, conspiracy and assistance are punishable according to role.
Article (76) — Crimes against Humanity
An act specified in this Chapter constitutes a crime against humanity when committed knowingly as part of a widespread or systematic attack against a civilian population.
Article (77) — Constituent Acts
Acts include murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation or forcible transfer, imprisonment or severe deprivation of liberty contrary to fundamental rules, torture, rape or other serious sexual violence, persecution, enforced disappearance, apartheid and comparable inhumane acts intentionally causing severe suffering or serious harm.
Article (78) — Persecution
Persecution is intentional, severe and unlawful deprivation of fundamental rights because of group identity, connected with a crime against humanity or another international crime.
Article (79) — Enslavement
Enslavement means exercising ownership-like powers over a person, including trafficking, sale, purchase, or labour or sexual exploitation resembling ownership.
Article (80) — Sexual Violence as an International Crime
Rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, forced sterilisation and comparable sexual violence constitute crimes against humanity or war crimes where the relevant international-crime conditions exist.
Chapter Two — War Crimes
Article (81) — International Armed Conflict
Grave Geneva Convention breaches or prohibited international-humanitarian-law acts in international armed conflict are war crimes, including intentional killing, torture, inhuman treatment, hostage-taking, extensive destruction not justified by military necessity and deliberate civilian attacks.
Article (82) — Non-International Armed Conflict
War-crime liability in non-international conflict covers killing, mutilation, torture, cruel treatment, outrages on dignity, hostage-taking, sentences without safeguarded trials, deliberate attacks on civilians or protected facilities, and other serious humanitarian-law violations.
Article (83) — Protection of Wounded Persons and Prisoners
Killing, torture, cruel treatment or deliberate denial of fundamental humanitarian-law rights to persons hors de combat, prisoners, wounded, shipwrecked or detained because of conflict is punishable.
Article (84) — Unlawful Attacks
Ordering or launching an attack known to target civilians or civilian objects, or to cause clearly excessive civilian losses compared with the anticipated concrete and direct military advantage, is punishable.
Article (85) — Protected Objects
Intentional attacks on hospitals, medical units, places of worship, historic monuments, educational or humanitarian facilities not used militarily, and conflict-related pillage, are punishable.
Article (86) — Child Recruitment
Recruiting or using children under fifteen in hostilities is punishable. Punishment is aggravated where a child under eighteen is exploited through coercion, trafficking or threats.
Chapter Three — Command Responsibility and Standalone Offences
Article (87) — Commanders and Superiors
Military commanders or persons effectively acting as such are liable for subordinates' international crimes where they knew or should have known in the circumstances and failed to take necessary, reasonable preventive, suppressive or investigative-referral measures.
Article (88) — Civilian Superiors' Responsibility
Civilian superiors are liable for subordinates' crimes within their effective authority where they knew or deliberately disregarded clear information, the crimes concerned activities within their responsibility, and they failed to take reasonable preventive or investigative-referral measures.
Article (89) — Superior Orders
Orders shall not excuse genocide, crimes against humanity, torture or enforced disappearance. For war crimes, orders are relevant only within narrow international-law limits where unlawfulness was not manifest.
Article (90) — Torture
Torture is intentional severe physical or mental pain or suffering inflicted by officials, public-service assignees, persons acting officially, or others at their instigation, consent or deliberate acquiescence, for information, confession, punishment, intimidation, coercion or discrimination. Pain arising solely from lawful punishment consistent with constitutional and international standards is excluded.
Article (91) — Torture Penalty
Torture carries ten to fifteen years' imprisonment, or life for serious permanent disability, systematic torture, or torture of a child or especially vulnerable detainee. Intentionally causing death through torture is punished as homicide.
Article (92) — No Exceptional-Circumstances Defence
War, threatened war, emergency, counterterrorism or superior orders cannot justify torture. No amnesty may prevent effective prosecution.
Article (93) — Enforced Disappearance
Enforced disappearance is arrest, detention or abduction in the State's name or with its authorisation, support or acquiescence, followed by denial of the deprivation of liberty or concealment of fate or whereabouts, placing the person outside legal protection.
Article (94) — Disappearance Penalty
Enforced disappearance carries ten to twenty years' imprisonment, or life where prolonged, involving a child, pregnant woman or person with disabilities, causing death, or forming part of widespread or systematic practice, without prejudice to classification as a crime against humanity.
Article (95) — Continuing Disappearance
Disappearance continues while fate or whereabouts remain concealed and truth undisclosed. Related procedural periods begin only when disappearance ends.
Article (96) — Enslavement and Forced Labour
Enslavement, ownership-like control or intentional forced labour through serious coercion carries seven to fifteen years' imprisonment, applying anti-trafficking law where more protective or punitive.
Book Four — Offences against the State and Constitutional Order
Chapter One — External Security and Sovereignty
Article (97) — Wartime Treason
Intentionally taking arms for an enemy State during international armed conflict or providing substantial military assistance to harm national defence carries life imprisonment. A harsher penalty requires accompanying intentional killing meeting its conditions.
Article (98) — Espionage
Secretly obtaining substantial confidential defence information for a foreign State or agency to harm Iraqi security, or knowingly supplying it to a foreign body, carries ten to twenty years' imprisonment.
Article (99) — Grossly Negligent Disclosure of Defence Secrets
Officials whose gross negligence discloses lawfully classified defence secrets causing genuine operational or personal danger face detention or imprisonment according to the result's severity.
Article (100) — Military Sabotage
Intentionally destroying or disabling vital defence facilities or systems to assist an enemy or weaken Iraqi defence during conflict or actual armed danger carries ten to twenty years' imprisonment.
Article (101) — Secrets and Reporting
Disclosing corruption or grave human-rights violations is not criminal merely because information is labelled secret where a protected lawful channel is used and necessary operational secrets are not disproportionately exposed. Whistleblower protections apply.
Chapter Two — Constitutional Order
Article (102) — Seizure of Power by Force
Using or organising armed force to overthrow the constitutional order, forcibly disable its institutions or prevent constitutional transfer of power carries ten to twenty years' imprisonment.
Article (103) — Armed Rebellion
Leading an armed group rejecting State authority and using organised violence against constitutional authorities carries seven to fifteen years' imprisonment. Peaceful assembly, strikes and protests are not armed rebellion.
Article (104) — Coercing Constitutional Authorities
Serious violence or imminent threats thereof to compel a specified decision by Parliament, Cabinet, the judiciary or President, or prevent constitutional functions, carries five to ten years' imprisonment.
Article (105) — Armed Forces outside State Institutions
Establishing, financing or leading armed organisations outside legally authorised institutions is punishable under the State Weapons Monopoly Law. This Code's general intent, participation and sentencing rules apply.
Article (106) — Peaceful Opposition
Criticism of authorities, peaceful advocacy of constitutional, governmental, electoral or policy change, peaceful demonstration and lawful journalism or politics are not offences under this Part.
Article (107) — Violent Electoral Disruption
Armed violence or serious threats disrupting public voting or preventing access to polling centres are punishable, without prejudice to harsher electoral-law penalties.
Article (108) — Counterterrorism Law
Terrorist offences follow special legislation subject to this Code's general principles, death-penalty limits, legality and liability rules.
Book Five — Offences against Public Office and Justice
Chapter One — Integrity in Public Office
Article (109) — Bribery
Officials or public-service assignees requesting, accepting or taking undue benefits for themselves or others in exchange for performing, omitting or breaching duties face five to ten years' imprisonment.
Article (110) — Offering Bribes
Offering or granting undue benefits for the same purpose is punishable. A person extorted by an official who reports before discovery and fully cooperates may be exempted.
Article (111) — Trading in Influence
Requesting or accepting benefits to exploit real or supposed influence over a public authority for an undue decision or advantage is punishable.
Article (112) — Embezzlement of Public Funds
Officials intentionally embezzling or appropriating entrusted money or benefits face seven to fifteen years' imprisonment. Value, role and recovery inform sentencing, but restitution alone does not end public prosecution.
Article (113) — Intentional Damage to Public Funds
Officials deliberately causing serious State or public-body financial harm for unlawful benefit are punishable. Administrative error or disputed professional judgment without criminal intent is insufficient.
Article (114) — Abuse of Office
Intentionally using official authority for undue benefit or unlawful serious harm to another carries three to seven years' imprisonment.
Article (115) — Official Extortion
Threatening use of official authority or obstruction of rights or services to compel payment or undue benefits carries five to ten years' imprisonment.
Article (116) — Unlawful Disposal of Seized Assets
Intentional disposal of attached, confiscated or publicly deposited property contrary to law or judicial order to appropriate it or enable another to do so is punishable.
Article (117) — Conflicts and Financial Declarations
Serious intentional concealment of conflicts or financial data and illicit enrichment follow integrity and conflict-of-interest legislation, subject to this Code's general provisions.
Chapter Two — Abuse of Authority and Protection of Liberty
Article (118) — Unlawful Arrest or Detention
Officials or public-service assignees intentionally arresting or detaining outside lawful cases, or continuing after knowing the legal basis has ceased, face three to ten years' imprisonment.
Article (119) — Unauthorised Detention Locations
Punishment is aggravated where detention occurs in unregistered or legally unmonitored locations or is concealed from courts or family.
Article (120) — Coercion of Accused Persons or Witnesses
Officials using violence, unlawful threats or deliberate denial of rights to compel statements or confessions are punishable; torture penalties apply where its threshold is met.
Article (121) — Non-Execution of Judgments
Officials deliberately refusing after warning to enforce a final judgment within their remit without lawful impediment face detention or fines, aggravated where intended to shield someone from accountability or deny a fundamental right.
Article (122) — Unlawful Searches or Surveillance
Officials intentionally ordering or conducting searches, communication interception or covert surveillance contrary to legal and judicial safeguards are punishable, without prejudice to harsher penalties for extortion or persecution using the information.
Chapter Three — Offences against the Administration of Justice
Article (123) — Perjury
Knowingly giving materially false statements before competent judicial or investigative authorities after oath or warning of truthfulness duties is punishable proportionately to their effect on the case.
Article (124) — False Reporting
Knowingly reporting a nonexistent offence or accusing a known innocent person to initiate proceedings is punishable.
Article (125) — Concealing or Destroying Evidence
Intentional concealment, alteration or destruction of material evidence to obstruct pending or reasonably anticipated investigation or trial is punishable.
Article (126) — Interference with Witnesses
Threats, violence or bribery inducing witnesses, experts or victims to change statements or withhold cooperation carry three to seven years' imprisonment.
Article (127) — Obstruction of Justice
Fraud, force or abuse of authority preventing judicial procedures or enabling accused persons to evade justice is punishable, excluding lawful defence rights.
Article (128) — Facilitating Escape
Intentionally freeing or assisting the escape of a lawfully detained person is punishable, aggravated by violence, weapons or custodial officials' involvement.
Article (129) — Impersonating Officials
Intentionally impersonating an official, judge or security officer and exercising authority or obtaining benefits thereby is punishable.
Article (130) — Interference with Judicial Independence
Threats, unlawful benefits or abuse of power to influence judges or prosecutors in specific cases are punishable, excluding lawful legal or public criticism of judgments.
Article (131) — Disrupting Court Hearings
Deliberate disruption through violence, threats or serious misconduct after warning is punishable. Courts retain hearing-control powers without expanding the concept of insulting the judiciary.
Book Six — Offences against Persons and Liberty
Chapter One — Homicide and Injury
Article (132) — Intentional Homicide
Intentionally killing a person carries fifteen to thirty years' imprisonment.
Article (133) — Aggravated Homicide
Life imprisonment, or death subject to this Code's restrictions, applies where killing involves clear premeditation, payment, exploitation of a child's or incapacitated person's vulnerability, facilitating or escaping another violent felony, torture, two or more victims under one plan, an official targeted for duty, or a severe discriminatory motive.
Article (134) — Domestic-Violence-Related Homicide
Killing is aggravated in recurring domestic violence, after breaching a protection order, or because a victim seeks to end a relationship or obtain protection. Honour motives do not mitigate.
Article (135) — Negligent Homicide
Causing death through gross negligence carries detention or imprisonment according to negligence, victim numbers, professional duty or created danger.
Article (136) — Causing Death while Driving Intoxicated
Negligent-homicide punishment is aggravated where vehicles or dangerous machinery are operated under materially impairing alcohol or drugs, with licence withdrawal under traffic law.
Article (137) — Serious Injury
Intentionally causing permanent disability, loss of a limb or sense, serious disfigurement or permanent danger to life carries five to ten years' imprisonment.
Article (138) — Intentional Injury
Intentionally causing proven physical or psychological harm is punishable proportionately to injury, weapon use and repeated assault.
Article (139) — Negligent Injury
Grossly negligent serious injury is punishable. Minor professional errors appropriately addressed civilly or disciplinarily shall not establish criminal liability.
Article (140) — Poisoning
Poison or biological or chemical substances used to kill or seriously injure aggravate punishment, without prejudice to weapons and hazardous-materials laws.
Article (141) — Serious Endangerment
Intentionally creating unjustified imminent danger of death or serious harm to someone under one's control or responsibility is punishable even without the result.
Article (142) — Failure to Assist
Unjustified failure to provide feasible assistance to someone in obvious danger of death or serious harm, without substantial risk to oneself or others, carries a fine or community service.
Chapter Two — Personal Liberty and Threats
Article (143) — Abduction
Forcibly or deceptively moving or detaining someone to deprive liberty for a significant period or achieve an unlawful purpose carries seven to fifteen years' imprisonment.
Article (144) — Aggravated Abduction
Abduction involving children, weapons, torture, ransom or coercive sexual or political purposes carries ten to twenty years' imprisonment; intentionally causing the captive's death carries life.
Article (145) — Hostage-Taking
Detaining and threatening to kill or injure someone to compel a State, institution or person to act or refrain carries ten to twenty years' imprisonment. Binding conventions apply to international cases.
Article (146) — Unlawful Deprivation of Liberty
Unlawfully confining, restraining or preventing departure is punishable, aggravated by prolonged detention, violence or exploitation.
Article (147) — Threats
Seriously threatening a violent felony against a person or their relative to intimidate or compel action or inaction is punishable.
Article (148) — Coercion
Violence or unlawful threats compelling action, omission or waiver of a right are punishable unless covered by a more serious offence.
Article (149) — Repeated Stalking
Deliberately and repeatedly following, monitoring, contacting or appearing at a person's locations despite refusal, causing reasonable safety fears or serious disruption, is punishable.
Article (150) — Personal Extortion
Threatening exposure of secrets, images, private information or disgraceful allegations to obtain money or benefits or compel non-obligatory conduct is punishable.
Chapter Three — Dependants and Vulnerable Persons
Article (151) — Abuse of Dependants
Legal carers intentionally subjecting children, older persons, persons with disabilities or patients to abuse or deprivation of essentials causing serious harm are punishable.
Article (152) — Neglect of Care Duties
Gross neglect of dependants creating actual danger to life or health is punishable, with regard to carers' capacities and resources.
Article (153) — Abandoning Children or Incapacitated Persons
Legal carers intentionally abandoning young children or incapacitated persons in seriously dangerous locations or circumstances are punishable.
Article (154) — Court-Ordered Maintenance
Deliberate refusal despite means to comply with final maintenance judgments after warning and reasonable time carries detention or fines. For complaint-dependent offences, payment of arrears may terminate prosecution or suspend enforcement under statutory rules.
Article (155) — Protecting Parents without Vague Conduct Offences
Abstract moral labels such as disobedience, shouting or disowning do not create standalone offences. Parents are protected against violence, neglect, exploitation and breach of legal duties through specified offences.
Book Seven — Sexual Offences and Protection of Families and Children
Chapter One — Sexual Offences
Article (156) — Consent
Sexual consent is free, specific and continuing agreement by a person capable of choice. Silence or non-resistance alone is insufficient; consent may be withdrawn at any time. Force, threats, incapacity or overpowering authority invalidate it.
Article (157) — Rape
Intentional sexual penetration, however slight, of another person's body without consent constitutes rape, punishable by ten to twenty years' imprisonment.
Article (158) — Aggravated Rape
Rape carries fifteen to thirty years where committed by multiple persons, with weapons, against children or incapacitated persons, by officials abusing authority, causing serious harm, or within detention or recurring domestic violence.
Article (159) — Marriage Does Not Presume Consent
Rape and sexual-assault offences apply irrespective of current or former marriage, kinship or intimate relationships.
Article (160) — Sexual Assault
Intentional non-consensual bodily touching or compelled sexual acts of a substantially sexual nature short of rape carry three to ten years' imprisonment.
Article (161) — Sexual Harassment
Repeated unwanted sexual conduct, demands exploiting occupational, educational or service authority, or conditioning rights or benefits on sexual compliance are punishable. Less serious cases may receive fines or non-custodial measures.
Article (162) — Children under Fifteen
Consent by anyone under fifteen to penetration or sexual acts with adults is invalid; kinship, guardianship, teaching, care or payment aggravate punishment.
Article (163) — Children from Fifteen to Eighteen
Adults exploiting authority, trust, dependence, substantial age disparity or need to involve children aged fifteen but under eighteen in sexual acts are punishable. Non-exploitative close-in-age relationships are not targeted.
Article (164) — Child Grooming
Intentional communication with a child by any means to arrange an unlawful sexual meeting or act, followed by a substantial implementation step, is punishable.
Article (165) — Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children
Using children in prostitution, sexual performances or production of sexual-exploitation material, or paying for it, carries seven to fifteen years' imprisonment, without prejudice to anti-trafficking law.
Article (166) — Child Sexual Exploitation Material
Production, distribution, sale or possession for distribution of material depicting actual child sexual exploitation is prohibited. Digital evidence and incidental or lawful professional possession follow criminal-procedure and information-crime legislation.
Article (167) — Non-Consensual Intimate Images
Publishing or threatening intimate images or recordings without consent to harm, coerce or obtain benefits is punishable, with lawful journalism and public interest protected under strict conditions.
Article (168) — Subsequent Marriage Is Irrelevant
Marriage to the victim, an offer of marriage or reconciliation shall not halt prosecution or punishment for sexual offences.
Chapter Two — Harmful Practices and Domestic Violence
Article (169) — Female Genital Mutilation
Intentional non-medical removal or mutilation of female external genitalia, or requesting or facilitating it for a girl, is punishable irrespective of guardian consent. Necessary therapeutic procedures are excepted.
Article (170) — Forced Marriage
Violence, serious threats or detention compelling marriage or its continuation are punishable, without prejudice to invalidity or civil protection.
Article (171) — Domestic Violence
Domestic-violence protection orders, services and safeguards apply under the specialised law, while homicide, injury, threats and sexual offences remain punishable under this Code.
Article (172) — Failure of Professional Reporting in Danger Cases
Special protection laws regulate reporting of serious danger to children or incapacitated persons, safeguarding professional confidentiality and good-faith reports.
Article (173) — No Offence in Inherently Harmless Family Conduct
Criminal law shall not impose family obedience or punish disputes or personal decisions not involving violence, coercion, exploitation or breach of a specified legal duty.
Book Eight — Offences against Property, Trust and Transactions
Chapter One — Theft and Misappropriation
Article (174) — Theft
Intentionally taking another's movable property without consent to appropriate it or permanently deprive its owner carries detention or imprisonment according to value and circumstances.
Article (175) — Aggravated Theft
Theft is aggravated when committed at night in a home after breaking or climbing in, by multiple persons, exploiting disaster, against vital public property, or by a person entrusted through private employment.
Article (176) — Robbery
Theft through violence or immediate threats against a person carries five to fifteen years' imprisonment, aggravated by weapons or serious injury.
Article (177) — Forcible Vehicle Seizure
Forcibly or threateningly taking an occupied vehicle or compelling its driver to change route for criminal purposes is aggravated robbery.
Article (178) — Unlawful Real-Estate Seizure
Taking another's real-estate possession or preventing its use through force, forgery or threats is punishable; purely civil disputes prioritise judicial restoration of possession.
Article (179) — Dealing in Stolen Property
Intentionally buying, concealing or disposing of property known or strongly believed to be criminal proceeds is punishable unless part of the underlying offence.
Chapter Two — Fraud and Breach of Trust
Article (180) — Fraud
Intentionally obtaining money or benefits for oneself or others through material falsehood, fraudulent concealment or deception inducing victims to dispose of property is punishable.
Article (181) — Electronic Fraud
Fraud remains an offence when committed through information systems, digital identities or electronic payments. Information-technology-crime legislation governs technical and digital-evidence matters.
Article (182) — Breach of Trust
Bad-faith appropriation or disposal of assets entrusted for return or specified use through custody, agency or management is punishable.
Article (183) — Private-Entity Embezzlement
Private-entity managers or workers intentionally appropriating funds entrusted through employment are punishable, without prejudice to civil and company-law liability.
Article (184) — Financial Extortion
Obtaining or attempting to obtain money or rights through unlawful threats against persons, property or reputation, or disclosure of private information, is punishable.
Article (185) — Fraud against Older Persons or Persons with Disabilities
Deliberately exploiting victims' impairments, isolation or dependence to defraud or misappropriate aggravates punishment.
Chapter Three — Damage, Arson and Forgery
Article (186) — Damage to Another's Property
Intentional destruction, damage or rendering property unusable is punishable with regard to loss value and dangerousness of the method.
Article (187) — Arson
Intentionally setting fires seriously endangering people, occupied facilities or essential infrastructure carries five to fifteen years' imprisonment, aggravated by death or catastrophe.
Article (188) — Forgery
Fabricating or altering documents, records or signatures to establish false facts and cause harm or unlawful benefit is punishable.
Article (189) — Official Forgery
Forgery in official documents, judicial, civil-status or real-estate registers, or by officials abusing office, aggravates punishment.
Article (190) — Using Forged Documents
Knowingly and intentionally using forged documents for legal or financial effect is punishable.
Article (191) — Currency Counterfeiting
Intentionally manufacturing or counterfeiting circulating Iraqi or foreign currency, or knowingly putting it into circulation, carries seven to fifteen years' imprisonment.
Article (192) — Payment Instruments
Making, using or possessing forged or stolen payment cards, instruments or financial credentials for fraud is punishable.
Article (193) — Dangerous Adulterated Products
Intentionally producing or selling counterfeit or adulterated food, medicine or products known to seriously endanger life or health is punishable, without prejudice to specialised regulation.
Article (194) — Fraudulent Bankruptcy
Concealing or destroying assets, creating fictitious debts or supplying false accounts to deprive creditors during insolvency or bankruptcy is punishable under bankruptcy law.
Chapter Four — Organised Crime and Proceeds
Article (195) — Organised Criminal Groups
Founding or managing an organised group of three or more persons persisting over time primarily to commit felonies for financial or material benefit is punishable, without criminalising merely inactive membership or social association.
Article (196) — Participation in Organised Groups
Knowing, substantial participation in an organised group's criminal activity with awareness of its purpose is punishable according to the intended offence and participant's role.
Article (197) — Financing Organised Crime
Providing funds or resources to enable organised groups to commit felonies is punishable, with anti-money-laundering and counterterrorism-financing law applied where relevant.
Article (198) — Criminal Proceeds
Proceeds are subject to confiscation and recovery under this Code and anti-money-laundering and integrity laws, protecting good-faith third parties and providing international cooperation.
Book Nine — Offences against Public Safety and Social Peace
Chapter One — Public Dangers
Article (199) — Dangerous Explosions and Fires
Intentionally causing explosions, fires or hazardous releases endangering multiple persons with death or serious harm carries seven to fifteen years' imprisonment.
Article (200) — Poisoning Public Water or Food
Intentionally contaminating public water, food or medicine supply chains to kill or seriously harm an unspecified number carries ten to twenty years' imprisonment.
Article (201) — Dangerous Transport Disruption
Intentional sabotage of transport vehicles, signals or facilities seriously endangering passengers or the public is punishable, aggravated where death occurs.
Article (202) — False Danger Alarms
Knowingly false bomb, disaster or serious-danger reports causing evacuation, major disruption or emergency mobilisation are punishable.
Article (203) — Hazardous Materials
Intentional dealings in prohibited explosive, chemical, biological or radioactive substances creating serious danger are punishable; special licensing and circulation laws apply.
Article (204) — Deliberate Spread of Serious Disease
Intentionally transmitting dangerous pathogens to infect others and creating specific, direct danger is punishable. Health status alone or minor negligence does not establish the offence.
Article (205) — Serious Health-Measure Breaches
Deliberately violating a specified lawful epidemic measure and creating tangible widespread danger carries a fine or proportionate penalty, with judicial oversight of restrictions.
Chapter Two — Public Peace and Rights
Article (206) — Violent Riot
Intentional participation in serious collective violence against persons or property with knowledge of the conduct is punishable. Peacefully attending a gathering where others act violently is not itself an offence.
Article (207) — Direct Incitement to Violence
Intentional public, direct encouragement of serious imminent violence likely in context to cause it is punishable. Shocking, oppositional or unpopular expression alone is insufficient.
Article (208) — Hatred Inciting Discrimination, Hostility or Violence
Intentional public advocacy of hatred on protected grounds is punishable under equality law when context, intent, reach and likelihood make it incitement to actual discrimination, hostility or violence, respecting freedom of expression.
Article (209) — Peaceful Assembly Protection
Merely calling, organising or joining a peaceful gathering is not criminal. Necessary, specific restrictions follow public-freedoms and peaceful-assembly legislation.
Article (210) — Places of Worship
Intentionally preventing lawful religious observance by force or threats, or entering a place of worship to disrupt or damage it, is punishable, aggravated by discriminatory motive.
Article (211) — Desecration of Religious Property
Deliberate physical damage or desecration of worship sites, cemeteries or sacred objects owned by religious communities to provoke violence or serious collective humiliation is punishable. Expressive criticism of ideas, religions or symbols is excluded.
Article (212) — No Criminalization of Blasphemy or Insulting Authority
Merely criticizing, mocking or insulting a religious idea, symbol, institution, public official or public authority is not an offence. Civil laws protect personal reputation, while threats, incitement to violence and false reporting are punishable according to their defined elements.
Article (213) — Violating the Sanctity of Graves and Bodies
Anyone who intentionally violates the sanctity of a grave, body or remains, trades in them or mutilates them without a legitimate legal, medical or scientific basis is punishable.
Article (214) — Serious Cruelty to Animals
Anyone who intentionally tortures a vertebrate animal or kills it cruelly without a legitimate purpose is punishable by a fine or detention, except for lawful slaughter, veterinary practice and pest control in accordance with legal rules.
Book Ten — Special Rules on Economic and Technological Offences and Supplementary Laws
Chapter One — Integration with Special Laws
Article (215) — Combating Money Laundering
Money laundering, terrorist financing and proliferation financing offences remain subject to the special law. This Code's provisions on intent, participation, legal-person liability and penalties apply to them unless the special law establishes a stronger safeguard.
Article (216) — Trafficking in Persons
Trafficking offences and victim protection remain subject to the special law. No provision of this Code may be interpreted to reduce protection or punish a victim for conduct directly resulting from their exploitation.
Article (217) — Narcotic Drugs
Offences involving narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances are subject to the special law. Penal policy must distinguish organized trafficking from personal use and substance use disorders, prioritizing treatment and alternatives where neither trafficking nor violence is involved.
Article (218) — Weapons
The possession of and trade in weapons and ammunition are subject to a special law. Using an unlawful weapon is an aggravating circumstance in a violent offence, without disproportionate cumulative punishment.
Article (219) — Cybercrime
Offences involving unlawful access and attacks on systems, data and digital evidence shall be regulated by a special law compatible with rights and freedoms. Fraud, extortion, threats and other offences remain offences regardless of the technological means used.
Article (220) — Elections and Political Parties
Electoral offences and unlawful political financing are subject to special laws, with this Code's rules on participation, legal persons and proportionality applying.
Article (221) — Environment, Health and Safety
Environmental, health and occupational safety offences are subject to special laws. Homicide, bodily harm and public danger offences may apply where their elements are established, without double punishment.
Article (222) — Intellectual Property, Competition and Markets
Specialized offences involving intellectual property, competition, markets, banks and companies shall be regulated by their respective laws. Criminalization may not be used to address a minor regulatory breach that can be controlled through effective administrative penalties.
Chapter Two — Rules for Criminalization in Future Laws
Article (223) — Necessity Test
When creating a new offence, the legislature must establish that the protected interest is fundamental and that the harm cannot be addressed equally effectively through less severe civil or administrative means.
Article (224) — Clarity of Provisions
A penal provision must clearly define the prohibited conduct, mental element and penalty so that individuals can foresee their liability. Vague, abstract language that permits the criminalization of expression or lawful conduct is prohibited.
Article (225) — Mental Element
Intentional felonies and misdemeanours ordinarily require criminal intent, whether express or inferred from the nature of the offence. Liability entailing deprivation of liberty shall not arise on a basis of absolute liability.
Article (226) — Impact Assessment
Bills creating offences or increasing penalties shall undergo an assessment of their impact on prisons, justice, rights, the budget and enforceability before enactment.
Book Eleven — Transitional and Final Provisions
Chapter One — Transition from the Existing Code
Article (227) — Repeal of the Previous Penal Code
Penal Code No. (111) of 1969, as amended, and all its amendments shall be repealed upon this Code's entry into force, including provisions reformulated by Law No. (10) of 2024. Earlier acts remain subject to the rule of the law more favourable to the accused.
Article (228) — Repeal of Conflicting Provisions
Provisions of decisions of the dissolved Revolutionary Command Council, orders, regulations and instructions that create offences or penalties conflicting with this Code or the Constitution shall be repealed. Within six months, the Council of Ministers shall prepare and publish, for information, an official schedule of provisions that have ceased to have effect. Publication is not a condition of repeal.
Article (229) — Decriminalized Acts
Enforcement of any penalty for an act no longer criminalized under this Code shall cease. The competent enforcement court shall order the convicted person's release or the removal of ancillary penalties and the expungement of such effects of conviction as the law requires.
Article (230) — Lighter Penalties
Where this Code reduces the penalty for an earlier act, a person convicted by final judgment may ask the competent court, through simplified procedures, to adjust the sentence to the extent permitted by the more favourable law.
Article (231) — Review of Death Sentences
Unexecuted death sentences shall, by operation of law, be referred back to the competent court if the offence falls outside the narrow cases permitting the death penalty under this Code, so that a proportionate lawful penalty may be substituted. This does not prejudice rights of appeal or retrial.
Article (232) — Abolition of Honour and Marriage Excuses
Upon entry into force, any provision allowing mitigation of a violent offence on grounds of honour or suspension of proceedings for a sexual offence because of a subsequent marriage shall cease to have effect. A person whose judgment was not final before entry into force shall not benefit from the repealed provision where its application conflicts with the victim's rights and the rule of the more favourable law as constitutionally interpreted.
Article (233) — Special Penal Laws in Force
Special penal laws remain in force insofar as they do not conflict with this Code or the Constitution, and the general part of this Code applies to them. The Government shall submit a legislative harmonization package within twelve months.
Article (234) — Harmonization of Terminology
References in laws in force to the divisions of the repealed Penal Code shall be replaced with corresponding references to this Code through a schedule enacted in a harmonization law. Delay in issuing the schedule shall not obstruct prosecution where the conduct is clearly criminalized.
Chapter Two — Implementation and Review
Article (235) — National Committee for Harmonization of Penal Legislation
The Council of Ministers shall establish, for two years, a technical committee chaired by the Ministry of Justice and comprising the Supreme Judicial Council, the Public Prosecution and competent bodies to prepare the necessary harmonization bills. The committee shall exercise no judicial or legislative powers.
Article (236) — Judicial Guidance
Within the limits of judicial independence, the Supreme Judicial Council may prepare non-binding principles and guidance to harmonize approaches to individualized sentencing and the calculation of fines and alternatives. They shall be published without compromising case confidentiality.
Article (237) — Training
The Ministry of Justice, the Supreme Judicial Council, the Ministries of Interior and Defence and competent training bodies shall prepare mandatory programmes for the transition to this Code, particularly concerning international crimes, torture, enforced disappearance, sexual violence and non-custodial alternatives.
Article (238) — Criminal Justice Data
Competent bodies shall publish annual aggregate statistics on offences, penalties, detention terms, death sentences, alternatives and recidivism, disaggregated to permit assessment of justice and proportionality without disclosing personal data.
Article (239) — Review of the Code's Impact
Three years after entry into force, the Council of Ministers shall submit to the Council of Representatives a public report on the Code's impact on crime rates, prisons, victims' rights, justice and costs, accompanied by amendment proposals where necessary.
Article (240) — Regulations and Instructions
Regulations and instructions necessary to implement this Code's administrative and executive provisions shall be issued within nine months. They may not create an offence or penalty or expand a penal provision.
Article (241) — Entry into Force
This Code shall enter into force twelve months after publication in the Official Gazette. The transitional period shall be used to train the relevant bodies, prepare implementing regulations and review special laws.
Statement of reasons
To modernize penal policy in the Republic of Iraq after the decades since Penal Code No. (111) of 1969 was enacted and the accumulation of amendments, special penal laws and decisions; unify the general principles of liability and punishment; achieve proportionality and legal certainty; clearly criminalize torture, enforced disappearance and international crimes; protect life, liberty, physical integrity, property and public office from crime; remove provisions that discriminate between persons or unnecessarily restrict freedom of expression; modernize sexual and economic offences, organized crime and legal-person liability; and arrange a safe transition from the existing system to a modern, enforceable code, this Code is enacted.
General Explanatory Memorandum
1. Why Repeal and Replace?
The existing Code was enacted in 1969 and has accumulated amendments, special laws and scattered decisions. Partial amendment adds another layer of complexity. The new code rebuilds the general rules and makes them the reference for all penal legislation, reducing inconsistencies and enabling judges and citizens to understand liability and punishment within one system.
2. The Death Penalty: Restriction, Not Immediate Abolition
The bill does not immediately abolish the death penalty. It confines it to the narrowest scope associated with the gravest intentional killings, removes its mandatory character and prohibits it for offences not involving killing. This removes the principal point of conflict with the International Covenant's “most serious crimes” standard and enables a practicable legal transition while leaving the national debate on full abolition open.
3. Torture and Enforced Disappearance
Instead of dispersing liability across bodily harm, abuse of authority and unlawful detention, the bill creates two separate offences with clear definitions, command responsibility and no defence based on orders or exceptional circumstances. This fundamentally changes the protection of detainees and Iraq's capacity to fulfil its treaty obligations.
4. Expression and Reputation Offences
The state does not protect its standing by imprisoning people for insult or ridicule. The bill retains protection against threats, false reporting and direct incitement to violence and sabotage, but removes insults to authorities, blasphemy and ordinary defamation from the penal code, leaving reputation protection to civil remedies unless the conduct becomes extortion, threats or criminal incitement.
5. “Honour”-Based Violence and Sexual Offences
The bill removes any mitigating weight from the so-called honour motive and does not allow subsequent marriage to erase the offence. It defines rape by the absence of consent, without a marital exception. Protection thus moves from a focus on the victim's social status to safeguarding every person's freedom and physical integrity.
6. “Disobedience to Parents” and Moral Criminalization
The bill protects parents and older persons from violence, neglect, exploitation and failure to fulfil maintenance obligations, but does not retain vague descriptions such as shouting or disowning as separate offences. Criminal punishment must relate to harmful conduct that can be defined and proved, rather than a broad moral judgment that may differ between families.
7. Legal Persons
Modern economic crime often operates through companies or entities. The bill therefore establishes criminal liability for private legal persons when offences are committed for their benefit or result from a serious failure of oversight, with financial penalties, confiscation and compliance programmes rather than attempts to imprison a legal entity.
8. Short-Term Detention
Short-term detention is costly and may disrupt employment and family life without a clear rehabilitative benefit in non-violent cases. The bill expands community service, community supervision, suspended sentences and proportionate fines while retaining imprisonment as a central penalty for violence, exploitation and serious corruption.
9. International Crimes
Iraq incorporated definitions of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes into its law on the Iraqi High Tribunal within a specific temporal scope. The new code makes these offences a permanent part of general penal law, allowing future crimes to be prosecuted under the principle of legality without creating an exceptional court for each period.
Alignment with Existing Legislation
| Existing framework | Response in the Bill |
|---|---|
| Penal Code No. 111 of 1969, as amended | Full repeal and replacement, with application of the more favourable law and review of previous judgments. |
| Law No. 10 of 2024 | The code incorporates the three amended issues into a more comprehensive formulation: maintenance protection remains, vague moral formulations are removed, immunities return to their constitutional and procedural rules, and there is no separate offence of insulting authorities. |
| Counter-Terrorism Law No. 13 of 2005 | Temporarily remains a special law, but is subject to the general part and the restriction prohibiting the death penalty for an offence not involving intentional killing. |
| Anti-Trafficking in Persons Law | Remains in force and is complemented by enslavement and sexual exploitation offences and victim protection. |
| Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing Law | Remains in force, with the rules on legal persons, confiscation and intent applying. |
| Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Law | Remains a special law, with penal policy directed towards distinguishing organized trafficking, personal use and treatment. |
| Iraqi High Tribunal Law | Provides national experience in defining international crimes, while the new Code establishes general and prospective jurisdiction without the High Tribunal's specific temporal limitations. |
| Proposed Domestic Violence Protection Law (POL-13) | Governs protection orders and services, while the Penal Code governs offences and penalties. |
| New Criminal Procedure Code (POL-15) | Governs arrest, pretrial detention, investigation, evidence, fair-trial safeguards and implementation of reviews arising from the more favourable law. |
Financial and Implementation Implications
The direct financial impact of enacting a penal code is limited compared with laws creating new institutions, because implementation falls to the existing judiciary, Public Prosecution, police and Ministry of Justice. Transition nevertheless entails temporary costs for training judges, investigators and lawyers, updating case management systems, reviewing existing judgments and preparing cross-reference schedules for special laws.
Conversely, expanding alternatives to short-term detention and removing expression offences and vague offences may reduce unnecessary pressure on pretrial detention and prisons. Creating torture, enforced disappearance and international crimes offences may increase complex cases requiring stronger investigative, forensic and witness protection capacities. Public data do not permit a precise national cost estimate. The bill therefore requires an implementation impact assessment before entry into force and a harmonization package during the transitional year.
Sources and references
- Iraqi Council of Representatives — Constitution of the Republic of Iraq 2005. Official constitutional source
Iraqi Constitution — Council of Representatives - Ministry of Justice — Al-Waqa'i Al-Iraqiya, Issue 4776, Law No. (10) of 2024 amending Penal Code No. (111) of 1969. Official legislation
https://www.moj.gov.iq/upload/pdf/4776_901.pdf - Iraqi Council of Representatives — Record of Law No. (10) of 2024 and its reading and voting dates. Official parliamentary source
Iraqi Council of Representatives — Law Search - Supreme Judicial Council — “Criminalizing Disobedience to Parents”; a judicial note calling for a new penal code consolidating scattered legislation. Institutional judicial source
https://www.sjc.iq/view.69399/ - Supreme Judicial Council — “Parliamentary Immunity”, an examination of Penal Code Amendment Law No. 10 of 2024. Institutional judicial source
https://www.sjc.iq/view.74515/ - Ministry of Justice — Iraqi High Tribunal Law No. (10) of 2005, as amended. Official Iraqi legislation; national reference for international crimes
https://www.moj.gov.iq/view.7343/ - United Nations — Human Rights Committee, concluding observations on Iraq's sixth periodic report, CCPR/C/IRQ/CO/6 (2022). International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
Committee document - United Nations — Committee against Torture, concluding observations on Iraq's second periodic report, CAT/C/IRQ/CO/2 (2022). Convention against Torture
Committee document - United Nations — Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, concluding observations on Iraq's eighth periodic report, CEDAW/C/IRQ/CO/8 (2026). Latest treaty review relevant to discriminatory provisions and sexual offences
Committee document - United Nations — Additional information submitted by Iraq under the Convention on Enforced Disappearance, CED/C/IRQ/AI/2 (2024). Status of the national criminalization bill
Iraq document - United Nations Treaty Collection — Iraq's accession to the Convention against Torture on 7 July 2011. Official treaty status
UN Treaty Collection - United Nations Treaty Collection — Iraq's accession to the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance on 23 November 2010. Official treaty status
UN Treaty Collection - United Nations Treaty Collection — Iraq's accession to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide on 20 January 1959. Official treaty status
UN Treaty Collection - Ministry of Justice — Al-Waqa'i Al-Iraqiya, Issue 4781, Law No. (15) of 2024, First Amendment to the Anti-Prostitution Law No. (8) of 1988. Special penal legislation in force requiring separate harmonization
https://moj.gov.iq/upload/pdf/4781_81.pdf
Proposed legislation within Ali Zuweid's Political Programme · POL-14