Baghdad, Iraq ? After Saddam Hussein was sentenced Sunday to hang, Iraqi security forces closed two Sunni Muslim television stations for violating curfew and a law that bans airing material that could undermine the country’s stability, the Interior Ministry said.

Brig. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf, the Interior Ministry spokesman, told The Associated Press that the Al-Zawraa and Salahuddin stations were closed with the approval of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

He said the stations violated a curfew imposed in three provinces by speaking to people in the streets and airing comments that were deemed to “incite violence.”

The owner of Al-Zawraa, legislator Mishan al-Jabouri, said later Sunday that Iraqi police raided the headquarters of the station and cordoned them off because of the channel’s criticism of the verdict.

Al-Jabouri, leader of the small Sunni Arab Front for Reconciliation and Liberation, had his parliamentary immunity stripped last month after he was accused of embezzling funds intended for an armed force protecting oil pipelines in northern Iraq.

In July, al-Maliki warned television stations against broadcasting video that could undermine Iraq’s stability.

Airing programs or comments that incite violence or call for hatred are considered a violation of Iraq’s anti-terrorism law, Khalaf said.