Iraqi in decapitated head post guilty of war crime

Baghdad: An Iraqi migrant to Finland has been found guilty of committing a war crime after he posted images of himself on Facebook with the head of an Islamic State group fighter.

Jebbar Salman Ammar, 29, was given a 16-month suspended sentence by the Pirkanmaa district court.

The court found he had desecrated the corpse of a fighter by posting three images on Facebook of himself with the head of the fighter in the Iraqi city of Tikrit.

He admitted to publishing the pictures and to having fought against the Islamic State group, but he denied committing a war crime.

Prosecutor Juha-Mikko Hamalainen said his conduct was defined as "a war crime" by the International Criminal Court. He had sought a two-year prison sentence.

Jebbar Salman Ammar arrived in Finland about six months ago as part of Europe`s huge migrant influx.

Finland, a country of 5.4 million people, received some 32,000 mostly Iraqi asylum seekers last year, as Europe experienced it biggest migrant crisis since World War II.

More than one million migrants fleeing war in Syria and upheaval across the Middle East, Asia and Africa landed in Europe since the start of 2015.

A similar case of another Iraqi man is to be heard in another Finnish court next week.