Four arrested in Baghdad for forging court seals to issue fake marriages

BAGHDAD — Iraq’s judiciary said Sunday that four suspects were arrested in Baghdad’s Shaab area on charges of forging seals belonging to Rusafa court authorities and using them to issue illegal marriage contracts.

The Supreme Judicial Council’s media office said the Rusafa Investigative Court formed a working team after the Rusafa Anti-Crime Office reported that individuals were forging court and judicial seals near the Shaab courthouse. The team arrested the suspects at the scene, the statement said. The judiciary said the suspects gave judicial confessions acknowledging they used the forged seals to issue illegal marriage contracts, and that arrest and search warrants were issued for others allegedly involved.

Iraqi law requires marriages to be registered through the Personal Status Court for legal recognition. Marriages conducted outside the court may be recognized religiously but carry no legal effect until registered, a route long used despite the restrictions.

The arrests come amid a series of Iraqi prosecutions over forged government seals. In April 2026, a court in Salah al-Din sentenced a lawyer to seven years after authorities seized forged seals attributed to multiple institutions, including courts, under Article 275 of the penal code, which criminalizes possession and use of forged official seals. In February 2026, the Karkh Criminal Court sentenced two men to three and two years for forging arrest and investigation orders purportedly from a terrorism investigation court. In September 2025, the Central Criminal Court sentenced a man to 10 years for possessing forged state seals. In May 2025, seven government employees in Salah al-Din were arrested on forgery and fraud charges involving state-owned land and fabricated approvals.