Second Iraqi found guilty of war crime in Finnish court

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For the second time in a week, an Iraqi migrant to Finland was found guilty on Tuesday of a war crime for posting images of himself on Facebook with the decapitated head of an enemy fighter.

Hadi Habeeb Hilal, 23, was given a 13-month suspended sentence by the Kanta-Hame district court on Tuesday, for desecrating the corpse of an Islamic State fighter by posting on Facebook an image of himself holding up the decapitated head.

Hilal's countryman, Jebbar Salman Ammar, had posted three similar pictures on a different occasion, and received a 16-month suspended sentence at another Finnish court last week.

Hilal, who served as a sergeant in the Iraqi army, admitted to posting the picture in April 2015 on a public Facebook profile page, but denied committing a war crime.

Prosecutor Juha-Mikko Hamalainen told AFP that the conduct of both men was defined as "a war crime" by the International Criminal Court.

He said the cases were similar but not related to each other.

Both Iraqi men had arrived in Finland about six months ago as part of Europe's huge migrant influx. The country of 5.4 million people received some 32,000 mostly Iraqi asylum seekers last year, as Europe experienced its 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 have landed in Europe since the start of 2015.