Monday, the Iraqi criminal court sentenced the killer of the Kurdish pharmacist Sheelan Dara and her family to death by hanging, according to a statement published by the official Iraqi News Agency.

In accordance with Article 406 of the Iraqi penal code, he received three death sentences by hanging. An attorney said the suspect confessed to the charges in court.

According to the agency, the killer committed the murders when he was carrying out a theft in the family's property in Baghdad.

Dara Rauf and his wife Aliya Rashid, originally from Sulaimani in the Kurdistan Region, were stabbed to death on September 14 last year in the Mansour neighborhood of west Baghdad. Their daughter, Sheelan Dara, was also smothered to death.

The killer, identified as Mahdi Matar, admitted the theft was premeditated, noting the murders were motivated by the theft itself.

In a video confession released by the Kurdish Security Council (KRSC), Matar said he had known the family for four years.

He stated he visited Rauf asking for a loan, indicating he was in debt.

When Rauf said he did not have the money to lend, they started to fight.

Matar said he threatened the father, saying if he did not give him the money, he would stab and kill him immediately.

“There was a knife near me, I grabbed it and stabbed him,” he said.

“He fell to the ground and as I was trying to get rid of the evidence, his wife came.”

Matar stabbed the wife and then smothered Sheelan using a pillow.

The Iraqi authorities arrested the accused of carrying out the crime about 24 hours after it occurred.

The killing of the affluent family caused a shock in Iraq due to the violent nature of the incident, as well as the fact that she participated in the demonstrations as a paramedic, which raised suspicions that she might be assassinated, like other activists.

Activist Tariq Al-Husseini believes the attackers deliberately targeted Dara and her family.

“The purpose of the attack was to kill Sheelan who had been active in supporting popular protests against the ruling political class,” he said, adding that this has happened with a dozen others.

“Sheelan was one of the well-known young faces in Tahrir Square,” he said.