Woman sentenced to death for killing her brother’s wife two days after wedding

BAGHDAD — An Iraqi court has sentenced a woman to death for killing her brother’s new wife two days after their wedding, according to a case account published by the judiciary’s newspaper.

She opposed the marriage, her brother’s second, because she was close to his first wife and their children and believed it had broken up the family, the court records said. The couple had married at a personal status court and celebrated two days before the killing.

According to her testimony, she asked the bride to come with her to a cattle enclosure about 50 metres from the house, carrying a newly bought kitchen knife she said she needed for cutting rope on feed sacks. The two argued about the marriage, and she pushed the bride onto the sacks and stabbed her in the neck. She then washed the knife and her hands, changed her clothes and went back to her daily routine. The family started searching about 15 minutes later and found the bride dead in the enclosure.

Police recovered a red-handled knife with traces of blood and the defendant’s clothes. The court relied on her confession, a reconstruction, the autopsy, forensic evidence and a cut on her finger consistent with the victim fighting back, and convicted her of premeditated murder under Article 406/1/A of the Penal Code.