11 Those Found Guilty of “Terrorism” Are Executed in Iraq: Report
Nasiriyah: Security and health sources said on Wednesday that at least 11 people found guilty of “terrorism” had been killed by Iraqi authorities this week. Amnesty International, a human rights organization, denounced the “alarming lack of transparency” in this process.
Under Iraqi law, the president must approve execution decrees before they can be carried out, and both terrorism and murder are capital crimes.
Eleven “terrorists from the Islamic State group” were hanged in a jail in the city of Nasiriyah “under the supervision of a justice ministry team,” a security source in the southern province of Dhi Qar, Iraq, said AFP.
The corpses of eleven victims who were executed have been sent to the health department, according to a local medical source.
A source who requested to remain anonymous, citing the sensitivity of the matter, said that they were hung on Monday “under Article 4 of the anti-terrorism law.”.
According to the medical authority, all eleven were from Salahaddin province, and seven of the remains had been given to their relatives.
Hundreds of death and life sentences have been imposed by Iraqi courts on individuals found guilty of belonging to “a terrorist group” in recent years. The conviction carries the death penalty regardless of the defendant’s combat activity.
Iraq has come under fire for tribunals that human rights organizations have called hurried and that sometimes use torture to get confessions.
Amnesty International denounced the most recent hangings for “overly broad and vague terrorism charges” in a statement on Wednesday.
Eleven individuals who had been “convicted on the basis of their affiliation to the so-called Islamic State armed group” were among the 13 men who were put to death on Monday, according to the report.
According to Amnesty, who cited the two other individuals’ attorneys, “they were found guilty of terrorism-related offences under the Penal Code after a grossly unfair trial.” The other two were detained in 2008.
