{"id":829475,"date":"2026-07-28T17:13:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T17:13:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/829475\/"},"modified":"2026-07-28T17:13:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T17:13:09","slug":"iraq-hands-life-sentence-to-australia-based-drug-trafficker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/829475\/","title":{"rendered":"Iraq Hands Life Sentence to Australia-Based Drug Trafficker"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Iraq&#8217;s judiciary announced on Tuesday that it sentenced Kazem Hamad, notorious for drug trafficking in Australia, to life in prison. <\/p>\n<p>The National Center for International Judicial Cooperation (NCIJC) said that the trafficking sentence handed down by the Karkh criminal court also includes &#8220;the confiscation of his movable and immovable assets in accordance with the law&#8221;. <\/p>\n<p>Hamad was deported from Australia to Iraq in 2023, and was arrested in January this year &#8220;in response to an official request from Australia&#8221;, the NCIJC said. <\/p>\n<p>The Australian Federal Police said in a statement that the NCIJC had informed them that &#8220;a life sentence had been handed down against an individual of interest to Australian authorities&#8221;, noting &#8220;the work of our important partner&#8221;. <\/p>\n<p>The NCIJC said that Hamad &#8220;is considered one of the most wanted individuals by Iraqi and international judiciaries&#8221;, adding that he had smuggled &#8220;large quantities of narcotics&#8221; into Iraq and Australia. <\/p>\n<p>He is also &#8220;linked to transnational organized crime gangs involved in drug trafficking, money laundering, murder, kidnapping, extortion, and organized violence&#8221;, the NCIJC said. <\/p>\n<p>In February, following a visit to Iraq, the Australian police said they were providing &#8220;relevant operational information&#8221; on Hamad&#8217;s activities in Australia, where he was believed to be &#8220;operating in five states and one territory&#8221;. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Iraq&#8217;s judiciary announced on Tuesday that it sentenced Kazem Hamad, notorious for drug trafficking in Australia, to life&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":829476,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-829475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/829475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=829475"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/829475\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/829476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=829475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=829475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=829475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}