Turku Court of Appeal convicts Iraqi man of rape – forced marriage to 13-year-old relative
Court of appeal increased sentence: man forced underage relative into marriage and raped her for years. Final sentence is seven years and two months imprisonment.
Court of appeal increases rape conviction for Iraqi man sentenced for forced marriage
The Turku Court of Appeal has increased the sentence in a case where an Iraqi man forced his 13-year-old relative into marriage abroad, according to Yle News.
The District Court of Southwest Finland sentenced the man in 2025 to six and a half years in prison for serious human trafficking, child abduction and serious deprivation of liberty. The Court of Appeal added a conviction for rape to the judgment, bringing the sentence to seven years and two months.
The coercion began in 2008, when the man married the girl abroad. The couple moved to Finland in 2012. According to the Court of Appeal, the girl had no real opportunity to refuse sexual intercourse — the man pressured the victim daily or weekly. The victim gave birth to three children in the 2010s, two of whom were born while she was a minor.
The Court of Appeal found that the man exploited the victim's dependent position and precarious situation: the girl was penniless, without education and unable to speak the language in a foreign country.
In 2018, the man abducted the children to Iraq, where they remained for six years. The children were first transported by passenger ship to Sweden. The man was arrested under a European arrest warrant in August 2024 abroad and has been in custody since September that year.
The victim's legal adviser has previously told Yle that the victim's persistence in seeking justice has been central to the case. Forced marriage was criminalised in Finland as a separate criminal offence in 2025.
Source: Yle Uutiset