Mousa Walaa.

Gulf Today Report

An Iraqi 7-year-old child named Mousa Walaa was killed after being tortured by his stepmother, according to the Iraqi Network for Women's Rights, which quoted the news from a security source.

The deceased was reportedly tortured by his stepmother, using electricity, a knife, salt and smothering until he died in Al Khatib area of Al Shula city in Baghdad.

His pictures, which went viral on social media platforms, angered the Iraqis, especially since his dead body had signs of the torture.

The stepmother was taken into custody.

An officer from the crime scene explained that signs of severe torture appeared on the child's body, noting that the stepmother confessed to her crime and is now subject to legal procedures at the Shula police station.

Local media reported that the woman involved in the crime did not suffer from any psychological or mental illness.

A court hearing has been scheduled. Eyewitnesses said that the family of the child's father filed a lawsuit against the stepmother who was arrested trying to flee the area.

A combo image shows Mousa Walaa’s body at his residence in Baghdad.

The child's father works for an official security service.

The motive for the crime is not yet known.

Social media users have demanded that the stepmother be tortured to death in the same way.

In November 2021, the Iraqi Ministry of Interior arrested a woman who sold her daughter's kidney for 10 million Iraqi dinars in the capital Baghdad.

The ministry stated that, “A force from the Directorate of Combating Crime in Baghdad, the Office of Combating Crime in Mahmudiyah, executed an arrest warrant against a woman on charges of trafficking in human organs,” stressing that she “made an agreement and sold her daughter’s kidney to an unknown person in one of the northern governorates for 10 million Iraqi dinars ( $7,000).

He added that "the operation was carried out after the availability of information from confidential sources about the case, checking the information, taking fundamental approvals, and tracking down the accused until her arrest," noting that "the defendant's statements were written down and judicially ratified by her confession in accordance with the provisions of Article 17 of the Human Organ Trade Law."

In August 2021, an Iraqi mother killed her daughters after allegedly being instructed by “Satan to do the job.”

The Basra Police Directorate revealed the mystery about the killing of two girls inside their house, after the mother claimed that two masked people broke into the house and shot the victims and stole a sum of money and gold jewellery.

The girls were 17 and 15 years old and were gunned down with a Kalashnikov assault rifle.

According to the police statement, “A judicial order was issued for her arrest, and upon interrogation, she confessed that she had committed the murder out of revenge against her husband….”

Local media reported that the husband had an affair.

In 2020, a video showed an Iraqi woman throwing two children over a bridge on the Tigris River in central Baghdad.

A surveillance camera captured the moment the heinous crime was committed.

The Iraqi security forces arrested the woman and took her into custody.  

It was learned that the woman committed the act due to disagreements with her divorced husband, the father of the two children.

After repeated questioning, the woman confessed to the act, saying that she had done so due to a dispute with her ex-husband and that she wanted to take revenge.