REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL GEOGRAPHICAL EDUCATION

ISSN: 2146-0353 ● © RIGEO ● 11(12), SPRING, 2021

www.rigeo.org Research Article

Crimes Of Threats and Cyber Extortion

Through social media: A Comparative
Study
Ruwaida Saleem Abdulhameed1
Ministry of education , Directorate of Baghdad
Education-Karkh -1, Iraq
rwidasaleem78@gmail.com

Abstract
Threats and cyber extortion are considered as novel crimes which threaten the security and safety of Iraqi
society, because they infringe the individual's modesty, making him easily violated. Individuals are
subjected to psychological and social conflict, as well as pressure and threats from the blackmailer who
encourages victims to capitulate via a variety of ways. The current study aims to shed light on the many
types of threats and cyber extortion in Iraqi culture, as well as compare and contrast the laws of Iraq,
Egypt, and France. The researcher made use of the analytical method, which entailed examining the
data he gathered and categorizing it into parts based on its subject to identify issues. In terms of the
comparative approach, it was required to refer to the law provisions on criminal culpability for threats
and cyber extortion, which were specified in several national and international legislations. The study
revealed that cyber extortion is one of the outcomes of technological advancement and the incredible
usage of social media; its danger to people and society has grown to the point that several worldwide
laws have been passed to condemn it. Despite this, the Iraqi legislature failed to enact appropriate
legislation to match the severity of the crime. Unlike the Jordanian or French legislators, the Iraqi criminal
legislator recognized the seriousness of the threat crime after its rapid spread as a result of tremendous
progress in modern technology. However, unlike the Jordanian or French legislators, the Iraqi legislator
has not taken steps toward issuing a special law for information or digital crimes, and it is still a draft law.
One of the research's recommendations was to speed up the passage of the Iraqi cybercrime law, which
has been pending for more than a year. In Iraq, legislation dedicated to threats and cyber extortion is
required. Considering extortion to be one of the crimes against freedom and will, the proposed legislation
includes a collection of texts relevant to extortion in one complete text, independent of the issue or form
of the threat. Develop training programs aimed at developing the capabilities of workers in the field of
combating communications and information crimes if the threat is exercised through it.

Keywords

To cite this article: Abdulhameed R, S. (2021). Crimes of threats and cyber extortion through social media: A
comparative study. Review of International Geographical Education (RIGEO), 11(12), 1022-1033. Doi:
10.48047/rigeo.11.12.94

Submitted: 04-07-2021 ● Revised: 05-08-2021 ● Accepted: 25-09-2021

© RIGEO ● Review of International Geographical Education 11(12), SPRING, 2021
Introduction
Science and discoveries are rushing to produce strong rivalry in this field, which is currently
undergoing a huge information revolution. The Internet began with limited functionality, but it
quickly grew in popularity and spread around the globe, as its users grew to include people of
various ages and educational backgrounds. As it remained unconstrained to dissuade negative
activities that always occurred via people, this resulted in a variety of outcomes, including
unlocking closed doors. It also led to the emergence of cybercrimes that alerted societies to their
great danger. Cyber extortion through social media is one of the taxes of technical development
that society pays because of some sick behaviors of some through the negative use of this
development. Social media witness a number of violations represented in extortion, which is
carried out by impersonation in most cases, and this carries with it many problems for society. This
case may start with a simple message that turns into a video or audio recorded call and ends with
a big case. (Abdul Rahman bin Abdullah Al-Sanad, 2018 The matter becomes more dangerous
when extortion is carried out through an cyber means, the traces of which are difficult to erase
from it, or to identify the people who were able to see what the person is being blackmailed with,
or to be something that was viewed through an cyber means and was hacked. Extortion and
threats are considered as the disease of the age, as it may reach a person to the point of slavery
and servitude. Extortion is considered a threat to others by various means to notify them of danger,
which makes them always bleed, especially since the damage resulting from cyber publication is
more than double that resulting from paper publication. (Mamdouh Rashid Al-Anzi, 2017)

Methodological framework for research

Research problem

The safety and security of Iraqi society are threatened by the new crimes represented by threats
and cyber extortion, as they infringe the individual's modesty, making him vulnerable to violation.
In addition, the individual lives in situations of psychological and social conflict, pressure and
threats from the blackmailer that invite the individual victim to submit using several methods. The
crimes of threats and cyber extortion have spread recently, affecting all segments of society,
males and females, and help in the rapid spread of them everywhere. There have been many
complaints recently about extortion, especially from women who are constantly subjected to
extortion by young people by threatening to post their photos on social media (Ibtisam Karim,
2019). It is noted that these crimes are constantly increasing among young men and girls in Iraqi
society, and the large number of victims of these crimes, in addition to the development of
modern technology. This requires quickly confronting and combating this crime, searching for the
reasons for its emergence and spread, and setting up preventive programs for it. (Nahla Najah Al-
Anzi, 2020) Owing to few studies dealing with threatening crimes and cyber extortion, and the lack
of statistics about the degree of prevalence of threatening crimes and cyber extortion in Iraqi
society, this research was to clarify the most important images of threatening crimes and cyber
extortion and their motives and to look at the Iraqi, Egyptian and French legislation with regard to
crimes of threat and cyber extortion.

Research objectives

The current research aims at shedding light on the forms and forms of threats and cyber extortion
in Iraqi society and to compare the Iraqi, Egyptian and French legislation.

Research importance

1- The scientific importance of this research is to identify the images and forms of cyber
extortion in the Iraqi society, and the lack of research that dealt with it. Thus, this research is a
scientific addition by clarifying the comparison between Iraqi, Egyptian and French legislation.
Through this matter, it becomes clear whether the penal provisions of Iraqi legislation are
commensurate with the size of this problem or not.
2- The current research attempts to identify the motives for the crimes of threat and cyber
extortion among various categories of Internet users in the Iraqi society.

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3- It attempted to draw the attention of those concerned and those responsible for social,
educational and Islamic organizations, preachers of mosques and scientific institutions, to
contribute to combating threatening crimes and cyber extortion.

Research Methodology

In the research, the researcher used the following methods for her subject of criminal responsibility
for threats and extortion through social networking sites:
1- Analytical method: where I worked on analyzing the material I collected and sorted it
according to its subject into sections to find out its problems.
2- - The comparative approach: it was necessary to refer to the provisions of the law on
criminal liability for threats and cyber extortion that were mentioned in various legislations, whether
at the national or international level.

Research Plan

- For the purpose of clarifying the purpose and importance of the research, the research is
divided into the following sections:
- The first topic: criminal responsibility
- The first requirement: the concept of criminal responsibility
- The second requirement: the elements of criminal responsibility
- The second topic: Threats and cyber extortion through social media
- The first requirement: the concept of threat crimes and cyber extortion
- The second requirement: Threats and cyber extortion
- The third requirement: the causes of threats and cyber extortion
- The fourth requirement: the repercussions of the crimes of threats and cyber extortion
through social media on Iraqi society and its effects.
- The third topic: the extent of applicability of the provisions of the crime of threat and cyber
extortion:
- The first requirement: provisions in the Iraqi criminal law
- The second requirement: provisions in the Egyptian criminal law.
- The third requirement: provisions in the French criminal law

Criminal responsibility

The first requirement: the concept of criminal responsibility

The Iraqi legislator did not define penal responsibility, but it can be defined as the person to bear
the consequences of the forbidden actions that he voluntarily performs while he is aware of their
meanings and consequences. It was also defined as the obligation to bear the consequences of
the availability of the elements of the crime. Responsibility in criminal law is the set of conditions
that produce a crime and a personal censure is directed against the perpetrator of the crime.
These conditions show the act from a legal point of view as a rejected expression of the
perpetrator’s personality and responsibility in this sense constitutes an element of the crime (Al-
Haidari, 2010). Responsibility simply means (to bear subordination) or (blame). It indicates the
obligation of a person to bear the consequences of his act that violated a rule or penal text. The
penal responsibility is defined in general as: “It is an obligation to bear the penalty imposed by the
legal rules as an effect of the act committed in violation of their provisions.” (Muhammad Kamal
Al-Din, 1991)

The Elements of Criminal Responsibility

A person is not subject to criminal responsibility unless the elements of that responsibility are fulfilled,
and modern criminal legislation has established certain characteristics for it and considered them
to be elements that do not exist without their availability, namely: the material element and the
psychological element.

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The Physical Element

This element considers the causal relationship between the offender's act and the criminal
consequence, and this requires clarifying the meaning of the act and the result, and then the
causal relationship between them.

1- The act: an assault that affects the interest protected by the penal law by criminalizing the
act in one of the texts is considered criminalization. Every incident in which the character of the
act is not fulfilled is not fit to be the subject of the crime. The content of the act is determined by
(positive action and negative action. In this case, the responsibility of the offender is determined
according to whether the acts are related to the unity of purpose and constitute one criminal
behavior or not.
2- Criminal consequence: It is the effect resulting from the criminal act, but it is separated
from it, given that the completion of the activity does not lead to the achievement of the result.
This does not prevent the crime from having an effect on the criminal act punishable by law. The
result is a legal fact, that is, a legal adaptation to the physical effects of criminal behavior.
3- Causal relationship: It means the causal link between the act and the criminal result that
occurred, and it is the link that represents the cause and the causer. Accordingly, it is assumed
that the action and the result occur together. If the act occurred and a material result was not
achieved, in this case there is no causal relationship. Causality is where the outcome is likely to
occur according to the normal course of things in the event that the offender expected it or not.

The psychological component

The psychological component is defined as a psychological relationship between the perpetrator

and the criminal incident that he achieved in the outside world. This relationship does not differ in
its nature with different crimes, its nature is the same, whether it represents the moral element in
the form of intentional or error. In light of this, it can be said that the psychological component is
the direction of the offender's will to achieve the incident that led to the crime. It was said that in
order for the psychological element to be achieved, two conditions must be met: awareness,
which means the willingness of a person and his ability to understand the nature and description
of his actions and to appreciate their results, and freedom of choice, as the person’s ability to
direct his will to commit a certain act or refrain from it. The law supposes that when a person
reaches a certain age, he has sufficient ability to perceive and distinguish, and can direct his will
to the direction he chooses. After this age, he becomes criminally responsible for the crimes he
commits of his own free will, and he is aware of them. If it is proven that he did not realize and
chose what he did, then he is not criminally asked or punished, for the punishment is not just
because the act came from the offender, but the moral aspect is also taken into account, that it
is emanating from awareness and will as the two elements of criminal capacity. (Muhammad
Ghanem Younis, 2019)

Threats and cyber extortion through social media

The Concept of Threat Crimes and Cyber Extortion

Crimes vary in their forms and manifestations such as murders, thefts, rape, looting, robbery,
banditry and bribery. The reasons for the increase in cybercrime at the present time are due to
the scientific and technological development and the frequent practices of young people on the
Internet. Assistive technology programs provide speed and ease of social communication in a
way that exceeds logical capabilities. As a result of the emergence of the World Wide Web, with
all its progress and services, and the change in the lifestyle of societies, and with the widespread
use of the Internet as a means of high communication that relies on modern information programs
to control data and accurate information data, the world has turned into a small village. This, in
turn, led to the emergence of cyber threats and extortion crimes. Threat in its general concept is
defined as a physical behavior with a psychological content represented in warning the
threatened person to inflict harm upon him personally or upon a person dear to him, whether the
infliction of this harm is absolute from any restriction, or is conditioned. Threat is a cornerstone of
cyber extortion. It is intended to threaten to inflict harm that does not focus on the body of the
threatened, but rather enters into terror in his cruelty, such as threatening to burn down his house,

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kidnapping his son, or revealing matters that affect his honor and consideration, whether they are
related to the victim, or a person dear to him (Bashabsha, 2012). The crimes of cyber extortion are
also known as the methods and means used to pressure the blackmailer on the victim, and often
the woman and sometimes the man using several methods, including the method of defamation
on the widest scale or informing the woman’s family, whether a husband, father or brother. This
method makes the victim under the pressure of the blackmailer to force her to keep up with him
and fulfill his desires whether these desires are sexual, material, or other. It also uses images of
emotional, sexual, physical, cyber extortion and others. (Nawal bint Ali Muhammad Qaisi, 2014)
Crimes of threat and cyber extortion exploit the other party for material or sensual purposes by
keeping cyber records to threaten them. Cyber extortion is also a method of pressure and
coercion exercised by the blackmailer on the victim to submit to a demand.

Harm Threatening In Cyber Extortion

The threat with which the crime of cyber extortion occurs is required to be with harm, leaving a
trace in the soul that pushes it to commit an act, or refrain from it, against his will. In fact, the forms
and manifestations of abuse are multiple, and it may be material or moral, and its place is in the
soul, money, or reputation, which constitutes an enemy to human life, privacy, freedom, dignity,
reputation, and property. There is no doubt that the criminal law seeks to protect all these valuable
interests from aggression. This aggression may amount to a crime, and it may not constitute a
crime, and therefore the issue of the threat may be material or moral harm that amounts to a
crime. (Ali Adnan El-Fil, 2012)

Threats and Physical Extortion

Physical harm: It is the abuse that is in place of the body or money, such as: threatening to cause
bodily injury such as killing, beating, fire, theft, or damage, and therefore the threat to destroy
property of special value is blackmail. (George James brooks 2011) The French legislator has
explicitly mentioned the term threat of violence in Article 312-1 of the French Penal Code, when
extortion is defined as: obtaining with violence, threatening violence, or coercion to obtain a
signature, pledge, waiver, disclosure of a secret, or transfer of funds, securities, or any property.
The French legislator did not reveal the extent of the threat to violence. Extortion may constitute
violence, where the World Health Organization defines violence as: the intentional use or threat
of actual physical force against oneself, another person, a group of persons, or society as a whole
that results in injury, death, self-harm, maldevelopment, or deprivation, or may significantly lead
to it.

Emotional Blackmail

It means a position or speech that the blackmailer takes to cause the other party to feel ashamed
or wrong, or to hold him responsible that he cannot bear. Emotional blackmail is used to achieve
emotional and psychological control over others, and to make the other feel that he is indebted
or guilty against the person who is blackmailing him. This is a mean way of dealing with others.
Emotional blackmail consists of six stages: demand, resistance, pressure, threat, acquiescence
and repetition.

Informational Extortion

It is when a person steals information through what is called (hacking), which is the entry of a
person into a database of a company or organization. The person steals that information, changes
the data, or disables its network until the (software) is no longer qualified to transfer the data
requested by the blackmailing company. As defined by the 10th United Nations Congress on the
Prevention of Crime and the Punishment of Offenders, held in Vienna in 2000, it is: “Any crime that
can be committed by a computer system or a computer network or within a computer system,
and that crime includes, in principle, all crimes that can be committed in the cyber environment.”
(Aisha bin Qara Mustafa, 2009) Among the types of cyber extortion crimes are advertising
prostitution, practicing debauchery and incitement to practice it, sexual exploitation, publishing
pictures, films and publications that violate public morals, and infringing on copyright and the
rights of artistic classifications through copying and imitating programs and selling them, or

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copying them from the Internet and then selling them. This technology is also used to protect its
members from falling into the hands of law enforcement agencies in conferring secrecy and
secrecy on their operations.

The causes of threats and cyber extortion

1- Weak religious faith: As a result of the weakness of the Islamic background and its
restriction to theoretical aspects without paying attention to the practical aspect.
2- Many families make use of modern means of communication in a large way, especially
satellite channels and the Internet, which abolished the barriers and curtains that kept girls from
mixing with others without their accompanying male-sibilant escort.
3- The spread of non-conservative satellite channels: Some programs of satellite channels
and low media have appeared, including films, series and songs that are shown on satellite
channels for forbidden scenes that inflame emotions and inflame feelings and are watched by
the unprotected. Many young men of both sexes have dared to establish forbidden relationships
and make them ease the path of the forbidden. (Rami Ahmed Al-Ghalbi, 2019)
4- Failure to perform duties by every member of the family that Allah gives him like a father
to earn a living and guide his children with love and kindness and to plant within them a good
example by his good behavior in his life in society.
5- Poor social upbringing and poor social control.
6- Ignorance of matters and lack of knowledge of facts: complete and correct information
on sensitive topics such as the Internet and mobile phones.
7- Parents do not observe their daughters and taking care of them: every father should satisfy
the desires of his sons in sound and rational ways. We do not call for suspicious doubt with which
confidence is lost, and at the same time, do not promote blind trust.
8- Like of imitating, experiencing and being influenced by friends.
9- Economic factors: the economic aspects play a role on the behavior of people, either
negatively or positively, as we find that the economic aspects have a role on both the blackmailer
and the victim. It also shows its influence from both sides of poverty, need, wealth and luxury.
As for the victim, the more poor and needy she is, the easier it is to be exploited by the weak-
minded (Al-Ghalbi, 2019). The criminal blackmails the woman morally, taking advantage of her
need for a job, or threatening her with dismissal from the job she needs. This type of extortion is
called “blackmail to take advantage of the need”, which is what the victim resorts to meet needs
and pay poverty.

The Repercussions of The Crimes of Threats and Cyber Extortion Through social media On Iraqi
Society and Its Effects.

The effects of extortion crimes in Iraqi society are numerous. Due to the large number of diseases
and disorders that they cause to individuals and societies, the following is an explanation
explaining these effects: (Sulaiman bin Abdul Razek, 2018)

1- Legitimate effects: It is one of the greatest negative effects and consequences that affect
the criminal, which is disobedience to Allah Almighty and exposure to punishment and wrath.
2- Psychological effects: It plays a role in the effects on the victim. The effects of extortion are
represented in several psychological effects that accompany the victim throughout his life. These
effects may develop to make the continuity of his life impossible, which will make him lose
confidence in others, in particular. This makes the victim a turbulent, eccentric and abnormal
personality.
3- Security effects: Cyber extortion and other crimes lead to disruption of Iraqi security and
turn Iraqi society into a brutal jungle, in which the individual is not safe for himself and his family.
Cyber extortion leads to the collapse of values and morals in the Muslim community and to the
destruction and destabilization of its entity and the spread of vice.
4- Social effects: The social effects vary to be achieved by extortion crimes, which are of
several levels and types, on the individual, especially if the victim of this crime is a girl, in addition
to the feeling of humiliation and resentment towards oneself, shame and low self-concept, and
the control of irrational thoughts over her thinking and the large number of doubts.
5- Implications for Iraqi society as a whole: Spreading and expanding such crimes in light of
technological developments affect the rules for building and forming families and societies. This

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influence makes societies a weapon in the hands of criminals who want to intimidate and destroy
them against their people, as it affects the first circles and institutions of society, namely the family.
It spreads in the rest of the institutions that seek to form a conservative and Muslim social
framework capable of confronting and combating such crimes.

the extent of applicability of the provisions of the crime of threat and cyber extortion

provisions in the Iraqi criminal law

The crime of cyber extortion, which is one of the forms of cybercrime, has become a phenomenon
in society that threatens its foundations, until the environment in which it is committed is electric
and magnetic flashes, symbols and ciphers. The crime scene is no longer a virtual scene. The
reason for criminalizing cyber extortion is the threat, bargaining and pressure exerted on the
victim, which forces him to submit to the offender's desire and achieve his illegal demands under
duress out of fear of scandal. Recently, there has been a large spread of crimes in which modern
communication devices and digital evidence are used, as the Iraqi Penal Code in force did not
address this crime as it is one of the new crimes. The Iraqi judiciary did not remain idle in the face
of the crime of cyber extortion due to the lack of a law dealing with information and cybercrimes,
and the blackmailers who took advantage of the legislative void or to adhere to the rule that
there is no crime and no punishment except by text missed the opportunity. The Iraqi judiciary had
a firm role in addressing this imbalance in accordance with the provisions of Articles 430, 433, 437
and 452 of the effective Iraqi Penal Code No. 111 of 1969. These are the crimes of threatening,
defamation, violating the sanctity of private life, divulging secrets, and insulting and cursing by
blackmailing women, children and men. The motives behind committing the crime of cyber
extortion may be sexual motives, financial extortion or revenge. It is necessary to legislate a law to
combat the crime of cyber extortion and not be satisfied with what is stated in the Iraqi Penal
Code. Considering the crime of cyber extortion a crime of the public right, because it is a serious
crime against the family and society (Rami Ahmed Al-Ghalbi, 2019) The Iraqi legislator has dealt
with the crime of threat and extortion, as the first paragraph of Article (430) of the Iraqi Penal Code
stipulates that “A person shall be punished with imprisonment for a period not exceeding seven
years or imprisonment, whoever threatens another person to commit a felony against himself or
his money, or against the soul or money of others, or who does this by means of dishonorable
matters or discloses them, and this was corrected by a request or an assignment to an order or
refraining from doing an act. The second paragraph of the aforementioned article stipulates that
“the same penalty shall be imposed if the threat is in a letter without the name of the sender, or if
it is attributed to an existing or alleged secret group. Thus, it is considered a threat every word or
writing that would strike terror and fear in the heart of the person who is threatened by the
offender’s perpetration of a crime against himself or money or divulging or attributing things
outrageous to his honor. The threat may lead him under the influence of that fear to the offender’s
response to what he wanted whenever the threat is accompanied by a request for threat in
general as an expression of the accused’s will to harm the victim or a person Article (431) ). This
article stipulates that “Whoever threatens another with committing a felony against himself or his
money or against the person or money of others by assigning or disclosing matters that are
dishonorable or dishonorable in other than the cases set forth in article (430) shall be punished by
imprisonment. Article (432) stipulates that “everyone Whoever threatens another by word, deed,
or sign in writing or orally or by another person in cases other than those set forth in Articles (430)
and (431) shall be punished by imprisonment for a period not exceeding one year or a fine (Rami
Ahmed Al-Ghalbi, 2019). In the Iraqi Penal Code, regardless of whether the offender intended to
carry out his threat or not, because “the Iraqi legislator punishes for the mere threat and that the
offender’s intent is derived from the circumstances of the incident due to disturbing the security
of the victim and not as evidence of design or preparation to commit a crime. Whenever the
threatening statements are serious, then they are a presumption of the availability of the criminal
intent. The criminal intent is realized and the offender is punished for the act whenever he intended
to cause fear in the victim, whether out of revenge or to obtain money, or even just curiosity and
his desire to test the victim’s courage, or simply foreplay or joking (Nahida Omar, 2007) In order to
apply these laws, the Iraqi Court of Cassation ruled that “if the intent of the threat is mere
intimidation without the accused’s intention to commit a specific crime, the act shall be subject
to the provisions of Article (431) of the Penal Code.” (Judgment of the Iraqi Court of Cassation No.
(585/2007). Also, there is a draft law on information crimes and means of publication in Iraq for the
year 2020, which was addressed by one of the studies in three axes: the first axis: information crimes
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and their types, the second axis: information crimes in Iraqi legislation, and the third axis: means of
filling the legislative void. Article (11) of the draft law stipulates that: (The Iraqi Council of
Representatives website, 2021) First: A person shall be punished with imprisonment for a period not
exceeding (7) seven years and a fine of no less than (3,000,000) three million dinars and not more
than (5,000,000) five million dinars, each of the following:

A- If any person threatens another one through using computers and the information network
to commit a felony against himself or his money or the soul or money of others with the intent of
intimidating him or in order to induce him to do or abstain from doing an action.
B- Any persons sends or transmits any message, news, or cyber document through computers
or an information network with the knowledge that it involves a threat or extortion to a person with
the intent of intimidating him or in order to induce him to do or abstain from doing an act.
C- Second: Anyone who threatens another with the use of computers and the information
network in cases other than those stipulated in Clause (First) of this Article shall be punished by
imprisonment and a fine of no less than (2,000,000) two million dinars and not more than (400,000)
four million dinars. and means of publication in Iraq for the year 2020)

This is included within the framework of the Cyber Signature and Electronic Transactions Act (78)
for the year 2020, and the law ratifying the Arab Convention to Combat Information Crimes. The
honorable Iraqi judiciary did not remain idle in the face of the crime of cyber threat due to the
absence of a legislative text that punishes this despicable act. It also missed the opportunity for
blackmailers and threatening men to take advantage of this legislative void, or to adhere to the
rule (Nullum crimen sine lege). Our esteemed judiciary had a firm role in addressing this imbalance,
and judging the threatening perpetrators according to the correct legal adaptations to the act
of the threat in accordance with the general rules. By following the website of the Iraqi judiciary,
the researcher was able to find a set of judicial decisions related to many cyber-threat crimes. We
review part of it as follows:

(A) The Karkh Investigation Court specialized in terrorism cases at the presidency of the Baghdad
Federal Appeal Court, Karkh, ratified the confessions of members of a network specialized in
hacking social networking sites, by taking pictures, copying cyber conversations, bargaining with
their owners and threatening to publish them on all sites when they did not pay, with the intention
of defamation, threats and extortion. Legal measures were taken against the accused and
referred to the competent court in accordance with the provisions of Article (430) of the Penal
Code.
(B) The Karkh Investigation Court in the presidency of the Baghdad Federal Court of Appeal, Karkh,
ratified the confessions of an accused who claimed to be an “cyber extortion fighter” for having
blackmailed and threatened girls through social media. The court ratified the confessions by
another defendant who blackmailed a minor girl in exchange for sums of money. The competent
court took all legal procedures against them are in accordance with the provisions of Article (456)
of the Iraqi Penal Code.
(C) Writing down the confessions of an experienced hacker who blackmailed many subscribers
of the social networking program (Telegram) by hacking their accounts, accessing personal data,
withdrawing photos, and then requesting large sums of money and credit cards, after threatening,
through a cheap method, to publish their privacy on the communication sites. The Basra
Investigation Court stated that the other victims submitted several complaints showing similar
methods of extortion, using the same mechanism and requesting money in the form of a card,
that the perpetrator shall be punished according to the law according to the type of offense
committed and the legal period. However, the researcher believes that the texts of the Cyber
Signature and Electronic Transactions Act (78) for the year 2020 AD are insufficient to punish cyber
extortion and its various forms. So we find Article (11) does not punish all cases of cyber extortion.
Although the text of the article applies to the attack on the sanctity of private life by using the
Internet, the inadequacy of this article is due to the fact that it does not punish the threat of
disclosure to compel a person to do or refrain from doing an act unless it was obtained illegally.
Consequently, it did not address the case of the victim's trust to the offender for his secrets and
transferring them to him with his consent, and then exploiting the offender for that. The legislator
also requires for punishment that the subject of the threat be a crime mentioned in the Penal
Code. In fact, extortion occurs by threatening harm, whether this harm amounts to a crime or not,
which the text does not address. Therefore, this article is insufficient to punish cyber extortion,

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because it requires that it be in writing by the offender, or verbally through a mediator, and
therefore direct verbal threats by the offender are not punished.

Provisions in the Egyptian criminal law

The Egyptian legislator has combined the definition of the content and purpose of the threat of
extortion, as in Article 325 of the Penal Code which states: Whoever usurps by force or threat a
proven or unified bond for a debt, disposal, innocence, a document of moral or legal value, or
papers that prove a legal or social situation, or coercing someone by force or threat to sign or
stamp a paper from the foregoing, shall be punished with temporary imprisonment. Article 326 of
the same law states: “Anyone who obtains a sum of money or anything else shall be punished by
imprisonment. In some other texts, the Egyptian legislator went on to punish extortion, specifying
the content of the threat in extortion without specifying the purpose of the threat. Thus, extortion
occurs as long as the threat is made to divulge a secret to do or refrain from doing an action.
Article 309 bis (a) states that: Anyone who broadcasts, facilitates broadcasting, or uses, even in a
non-public manner, a recording or document obtained by one of the methods established in the
previous article, or without the consent of the person concerned, shall be punished by
imprisonment. (Ghannam Muhammad Ghannam, 2013) Article 327 of the same previous law
states that: Whoever threatens another in writing to commit a crime against oneself or money,
punishable by death, life or temporary imprisonment, divulging matters or attributing matters
outrageous to honor, and the threat is accompanied by a request or assignment of an order, shall
be punished with imprisonment. A person shall be liable to imprisonment if the threat is not
accompanied by a request or assignment of an order punishable by imprisonment. Whoever
threatens another verbally through another person with the like of the foregoing shall be punished
with imprisonment for a period not exceeding two years or a fine not exceeding five hundred
pounds, whether the threat is accompanied by an assignment or not. Articles 325 and 326 of the
Egyptian Penal Code punish extortion through the threat of violence, as Article 325 of the Egyptian
Penal Code states that: Anyone who usurps, by force or threat, a document proving or
establishing a debt, disposition, innocence, or a document of moral or nominal value Or papers
proving the existence of a legal or social situation, or coercion of someone by force or threat to
sign or stamp a paper from the foregoing, shall be punished with temporary hard labor. Article
326 of the Egyptian Penal Code states: Whoever obtains a sum of money by threatening or
anything else shall be punished with imprisonment, and the attempt to do so shall be punished
with imprisonment for a period not exceeding two years. The difference between Article 326
Egyptian Penalties and Article 325 is that Article 325's ruling is limited to usurpation of bonds and
signatures. As for Article 326, it includes the usurpation of funds and everything else, as they differ
in terms of means of coercion. Coercion in Article 325 includes force or threat. As for Article 326,
coercion does not occur except by means of threat, and the content of the threat is the same in
the two articles. It is noted on the position of the Egyptian legislator in Article 327 of the Penal Code
that the punishment is intensified when extortion occurs through the threat of a crime against
oneself or money, punishable by the penalties prescribed for the felony, or if the subject of the
crime is divulging matters, or attributing matters that offend honor. The Egyptian legislator
stipulates that the harm must reach the level of a crime. Article 327 of the Penal Code specified
the amount of violence with a crime against oneself, or money, punishable by death, life
imprisonment, or hard labor, which means that these crimes can be counted. The Egyptian
legislator has sought to protect the privacy of the individual in the Penal Code by not disclosing
his secrets. In Articles 309 bis and 309 bis (a), he penalized every act that affects it. The second,
third, and fourth paragraphs of Article 309 bis (a) directly deal with extortion, which states: Anyone
who threatens to divulge an order obtained by one of the aforementioned methods to compel a
person to do an act or abstain from it. The Egyptian draft Law on Combating Information
Technology Crimes for the year 2018 also punish for creating an e-mail and using it, for example,
in the crime of cyber extortion. In Article 25, the Egyptian legislator says: whoever creates an e-
mail, website or private account, and falsely attributes it to a natural or lay person shall be
punished by imprisonment for a period of no less than three months and a fine of no less than ten
thousand pounds and not more than thirty thousand pounds if one of these two penalties is
attested. The researcher here believes that the Egyptian legislator has limited punishment to
extortion when information is obtained by illegal methods mentioned, as he mentioned the phrase
“by one of the methods referred to, namely enslavement, registration, transfer, capture.” He also
permitted broadcasting, and the use of private conversations, and images obtained with the
consent of the owner, if he agreed to that, in accordance with Article 309 bis (a). But he did not
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mention that when it came to threatening her to disclose a job, or to refrain from it. This appears
from the text of the second, third and fourth paragraphs of Article 309 bis (a) of the Penal Code.

Provisions in the French criminal law

The French legislator defined extortion in Article 312-1 of the Penal Code as “the act of obtaining
something by violence or threat of violence or coercion to sign, pledge, give away, disclose a
secret or transfer money, securities, or any other good.” Article 312-10 of the same law defines it
as “obtaining by threatening to disclose or claim facts that would harm honor or reputation, (a),
consideration with the intent to sign (a), pledge or renunciation (a), disclosure of a secret or
surrender Securities or any other commodity. The French Constitutional Council has affirmed that:
“The crimes must be so precisely defined as to allow the judge to decide the criminal case without
judgment” (Susan Forward et Donna Frazier 2010. We find Article 29 of the law issued on July 29,
1881 relating to the freedom of the French press, defines defamation as: “Any claim or recognition
of a fact that undermines the honor and prestige of a person in society to others.” (Court of
Criminal appeal of Oklahoma, 2014) The French legislator penalizes every act that constitutes an
attack on privacy, by stating in Article 226-1 of the French Penal Code that “anyone who commits
one of the following acts shall be punished by imprisonment for a period of one year and a fine
of 45,000 euros:

1- Capture, record or transmit, without the person's consent, spoken or confidential words.
2- Take, record or transmit, without consent, a photograph of a person in a private place.

If the acts referred to in this section were performed without the knowledge of the persons
concerned, and without their opposition, while they were in a position to do so, their consent shall
be presumed. The article of the French Penal Code states that: “Whoever saves, transmits or
makes available to the public or a third party or uses any registration or document obtained in
any way through any of the acts stipulated in Article 226-1 shall be punished with the same
penalty.” If the offense set forth in the preceding paragraph is committed by means of the written
or audio-visual press, the provisions of the laws regulating these matters shall apply with regard to
the identification of the persons responsible.” Article 226-2-1 of the French Penal Code added by
Law No. 1321-2016 states that “when the crimes stipulated in Articles 226-1 and 226-2 relate to
words or images of a sexual nature taken in a public or private place, the penalty increases to
Two years imprisonment and a fine of 60,000 euros. Article 226-4-1 of the French Penal Code
punishes impersonation of a third party or the use of data of any kind in order to annoy others, or
infringe on their honor and consideration, with imprisonment for one year, and a fine of 15,000
euros. A person shall be punished with the same penalties when committed on a public network
of communications via the Internet. In view of these legal texts, it becomes clear that
eavesdropping is one of the clearest acts that constitute an attack on the right to privacy. Through
such act, information and private secrets of people are obtained, where the eavesdropping is
done without the knowledge of the victim. It also includes all conversations with the person that
constitute serious aggression against the person concerned, or others. Private conversations have
their sanctity and privacy, whether they take place between a person and others, or with himself,
as if he was uttering them to record them for himself and someone else picked them up. This was
confirmed by the French legislator in Article 226-1 of the Penal Code, as it used the expression
outgoing speech. Thus, the meaning of the speech goes to the individual hadith, and the
collective hadith, in contrast to the Iraqi legislator who used it relied on that the conversation be
between two or more people.

Research Results and Recommendations

Results

1- Cyber extortion is one of the results of technological progress, and the amazing use of
social media. Its danger for individuals and societies has reached a great extent, where several
international legislations punish for it. Despite of that, the Iraqi legislator did not put sufficient texts
commensurate with the size of the crime.

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2- The Iraqi criminal legislator realized the seriousness of the crime of threat after its rapid
spread after the tremendous progress that took place in the means of modern technology. So far,
the Iraqi legislator has not taken steps towards issuing a special law for information or digital crimes,
and there is still a draft law, unlike the case of the Jordanian or French legislator.
3- The cyber extortion, the subject of which is threatened with moral harm, is incompatible
with the right to privacy. Because access to information that a person does not want anyone to
know may be through eavesdropping and sneaking. Even when it is legally accessed, it is used
and exploited for purposes other than those for which it was intended and without the consent of
the person concerned.
4- The criminalization of cyber extortion reduces stress and social anxiety, because what is
being threatened is often the product of illicit relationships, or the exploitation of a trusted person.
It is also consistent with justice.
5- Criminal behavior in cyber extortion takes the form of threats to harm coupled with a
request. Thus, it differs from the crime of a threat that is not accompanied by a request by the
victim.
6- The subject of the threat in the crime of cyber extortion may be the soul, money, reputation
and honour. Cyber extortion is an attack on the right to bodily integrity, property, honor and
reputation, dignity and freedom, as it threatens to cause harm.

Recommendations
1- The need to expedite the approval of the legislation of the Iraqi cybercrime law, as it has
been under legislation for more than a year, with the allocation of a law on threats and cyber
extortion in Iraq.
2- Considering the crime of extortion as one of the crimes against freedom and will, with the
compilation of the texts related to extortion contained in the draft law in one comprehensive text,
whatever the subject and form of the threat.
3- The development of training programs aimed at developing the capabilities of workers in
the field of combating communications and information crimes if the threat is exercised through
it.
4- Increasing moral and legal awareness of the importance of maintaining confidentiality
with regard to information whose dissemination should be prohibited, or made available to the
person concerned only, as well as raising awareness of the danger of misusing cyber means, and
informing individuals of the means and mechanisms for encrypting their personal data.
5- Sending cadres specialized in combating computer crimes and the Internet abroad to see
the successful experiences in this field.
6- Exchanging experiences and information, intensifying participations in international
conferences, seminars and relevant scientific seminars, in addition to following up on international
developments in the field of combating threatening crimes and cyber extortion.
7- Civil society organizations make efforts to support the Ministry of Interior in addressing the
phenomenon of cyber extortion by carrying out large campaigns targeting several social
segments and different ages.
8- Encouraging to report about the crime of cyber extortion to be in complete secrecy and
to get rid of the culture of shame that dominates the victim.

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