Man arrested after video appears to show photograph of Sistani being burned

BAGHDAD — Rusafa police arrested a man after a video circulated on social media appeared to show him burning a photograph of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the command said, without naming him or saying what charges he faces.

Intelligence officers located and arrested him after the footage appeared online, according to the statement, which cited no legal provision and gave no further detail about the investigation.

Iraq’s penal code covers public insults involving religious figures and symbols. Article 372 deals with attacks on religious beliefs and practices, desecration of religious symbols and publicly insulting a person or symbol revered by a religious community. It was used in 2024 in a complaint against Rafidain Center for Dialogue director Zaid al-Talqani over comments about Sistani’s religious authority; the Najaf Misdemeanour Court acquitted him, though he was jailed for a year in a separate case involving threats against a Najaf provincial official.

Sistani, based in Najaf, is Iraq’s most influential Shia cleric and one of the highest-ranking marjas in the Shia world. His office asked political and service groups in August last year not to display his photograph on banners and posters in public spaces, particularly along the pilgrim routes to Karbala, and asked authorities to act.