An Iraqi court on Thursday sentenced an Iranian and four Iraqis to life in prison for the killing of an American citizen in Baghdad in November last year, court officials told The National.
Stephen Edward Troell, an English teacher, was driving through the capital’s Karrada district when at least two gunmen shot him. He was taken to hospital where he was pronounced dead.
The officials did not identify the Iranian and provided no further details about the case.
The Interior Ministry also confirmed the sentences in a statement, saying four other accused are still wanted.
"The Iranian man was the mastermind of the crime," one legal source told Reuters. All five were arrested in Iraq soon after the fatal shooting, the source said.
At the time of the killing, Mr Troell was working in the local English school, the Global English Institute, run by the Texas aid group Millennium Relief and Development Services.
A native of Tennessee, he had lived in the Iraqi capital with his wife Jocelyn – who was the language school's manager – three daughters and a toddler son, since 2018.
Shortly after the killing, social media accounts close to Iran-backed Shiite militias accused him of being a spy, although they produced no evidence for the claim.
Washington welcomed the sentencing.
"It is critical that all those responsible for the brutal, premeditated assassination of Mr Troell face justice and accountability," Matthew Miller, spokesman for the US State Department, said in a statement.
After the 2003 US-led invasion, Baghdad and many Iraqi cities were off-limits for foreigners because of the deteriorating security situation and widespread kidnapping.
But more recently, foreigners, whether visiting Iraq for work or as tourists, are often seen in Baghdad and other cities roaming the streets and visiting ancient sites without security guards.
Will the pound fall to parity with the dollar?
The idea of pound parity now seems less far-fetched as the risk grows that Britain may split away from the European Union without a deal.
Rupert Harrison, a fund manager at BlackRock, sees the risk of it falling to trade level with the dollar on a no-deal Brexit. The view echoes Morgan Stanley’s recent forecast that the currency can plunge toward $1 (Dh3.67) on such an outcome. That isn’t the majority view yet – a Bloomberg survey this month estimated the pound will slide to $1.10 should the UK exit the bloc without an agreement.
New Prime Minister Boris Johnson has repeatedly said that Britain will leave the EU on the October 31 deadline with or without an agreement, fuelling concern the nation is headed for a disorderly departure and fanning pessimism toward the pound. Sterling has fallen more than 7 per cent in the past three months, the worst performance among major developed-market currencies.
“The pound is at a much lower level now but I still think a no-deal exit would lead to significant volatility and we could be testing parity on a really bad outcome,” said Mr Harrison, who manages more than $10 billion in assets at BlackRock. “We will see this game of chicken continue through August and that’s likely negative for sterling,” he said about the deadlocked Brexit talks.
The pound fell 0.8 per cent to $1.2033 on Friday, its weakest closing level since the 1980s, after a report on the second quarter showed the UK economy shrank for the first time in six years. The data means it is likely the Bank of England will cut interest rates, according to Mizuho Bank.
The BOE said in November that the currency could fall even below $1 in an analysis on possible worst-case Brexit scenarios. Options-based calculations showed around a 6.4 per cent chance of pound-dollar parity in the next one year, markedly higher than 0.2 per cent in early March when prospects of a no-deal outcome were seemingly off the table.
Bloomberg
