Ten years for Najaf man convicted over boar meat sold as beef and mutton

NAJAF — A Najaf court has sentenced a man to 10 years in prison over the sale of wild boar meat, an informed source said.

“The Najaf Criminal Court issued a 10-year prison sentence against the person convicted of selling pork in the governorate,” the source said, without naming him or citing the provision under which he was convicted.

He was arrested last week after security forces said they found him with two slaughtered and skinned wild boars being prepared for sale as minced meat. He had been hunting boar in a marsh area of Hurriyah subdistrict in Kufa and supplying the meat to residents in Najaf, presenting it as beef and mutton, authorities said. The carcasses were seized.

Islam prohibits the consumption of pork, and Iraq’s constitution recognises Islam as the state religion and a foundation source of legislation. Iraqi law carries no explicit criminal provision banning its sale, but does for fraud and food safety. Selling adulterated, unsafe or falsely labelled products — the offence being that buyers were told they were purchasing something else. Revolutionary Command Council Decision No. 146 of 1998 does not mention pork, and Baath-era instructions from 1988 regulating pig farming appear never to have been repealed.

Neither the court nor the source has said which law was applied or how the sentence was arrived at. The 10-year term is longer than those handed to former officials convicted of illicit enrichment last month.

The Anti-Corruption Criminal Court sentenced Deputy Oil Minister Ali Maarij al-Bahadli and former lawmaker Talal al-Zobaie to seven years each this month over illicit and unexplained wealth running to tens of billions of dinars, and the director general of a state power company to six years for bribery. A former lawmaker convicted of extortion received six months.

The case prompted Muqtada al-Sadr to issue recommendations for Najaf days later. Najaf is “the capital of Shiism in the entire world,” he said, and no conduct should be allowed that damages the holy city, recommending “strict oversight of markets, restaurants, shops, butchers and all other products, which must conform to religious and health standards.” If that was not done, he said, “we will have something to say about it.”