The building of the Supreme Judicial Council and the Presidency of the Baghdad/Karkh Court of Appeal in Baghdad, Iraq.
Court sentences former deputy culture minister two years after his death
BAGHDAD — Baghdad’s Karkh Criminal Court has sentenced former Deputy Culture Minister Sarbast Omar Hassan in absentia to six years in prison over a 2014 contract to exhibit the Nimrud Treasure in Europe. He died in Germany on July 24, 2024, two years before the ruling.
The Federal Integrity Commission, announcing the sentence, described him as a fugitive. The court’s third panel convicted him under Article 340 of the penal code after finding the evidence “sufficient and convincing,” the commission said.
The case concerned the Culture Ministry’s agreement with a Danish company, Exhibition Group Holding, to display the Nimrud Treasure in European museums. Iraqi authorities raised concerns over how the contract was awarded and over safeguards for moving the artefacts abroad. The ministry withdrew from the arrangement and the company pursued international arbitration seeking compensation, a dispute Iraqi authorities said was settled in Iraq’s favour in 2015.
The Nimrud Treasure is a collection of Assyrian royal jewellery and gold objects excavated at Nimrud, near Mosul, between 1988 and 1992, and is among Iraq’s most significant archaeological finds.