Iraq hangs 10 ‘terror’ convicts; rights group calls for end to death penalty

NASIRIYAH: Iraq hanged 10 “terror” convicts on Monday, officials said, in the fourth such execution in three months, prompting a rights group to call for an end to the death penalty.

Courts have handed down hundreds of death and life imprisonment sentences in recent years to Iraqis convicted of “terrorism”, in trials rights groups have denounced as hasty.

Under Iraqi law, terrorism and murder offences are punishable by death, and execution decrees must be signed by the president. A health official said 10 Iraqis “convicted of terrorism crimes and of being members of the militant Islamic State group were executed by hanging” at Al-Hut prison in the southern city of Nasiriyah.

A security source confirmed the executions. They were hanged under Article 4 of the anti-terrorism law and the health department had received their bodies, the health official said.

Al-Hut is a notorious prison in Nasiriyah whose Arabic name means “the whale”, because Iraqis believe those jailed there never walk out alive. Iraq has been criticised for the trials, with the “terrorism” offence carrying the death penalty regardless of whether the defendant had been an active fighter.

On May 31, Iraq executed eight people convicted of “terrorism”. Eleven people were hanged on April 22 and another such group was executed on May 6, security and health sources said.

In June, UN experts said they were “alarmed by the high number of executions publicly reported since 2016, nearly 400, including 30 this year. “When arbitrary executions are on a widespread and systematic basis, they may amount to crimes against humanity,” said the special rapporteurs including the expert on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary execution.

They added that according to official records there are 8,000 prisoners on death row in Iraq.

‘Halt executions’

The experts urged Iraqi authorities to “halt all executions”. They also said they were “horrified” by the high number of reported deaths in Nasiriyah prison due to “torture and deplorable conditions”.

The experts, who are appointed by the UN Human Rights Council, do not speak on behalf of the United Nations. Rights groups have also denounced the proceedings as rushed, warning confessions were sometimes believed to have been obtained under torture.

“Iraq’s continuous implementation of the death penalty — despite national and international outcry — means we could be hurdling toward a human catastrophe unfolding on its death row,” said Amnesty International’s Iraq researcher, Razaw Salihy.

She said Iraqi authorities “must halt executions immediately in order to address the gross injustices that landed thousands on death row and the horrendous conditions they languish in”.

The IS overran large swathes of Iraq and neighbouring Syria in 2014, proclaiming its “caliphate” and launching a reign of terror.

It was defeated in Iraq in 2017 by Iraqi forces backed by a US-led military coalition, and in 2019 lost the last territory it held in Syria to US-backed Kurdish forces.

But its remnants continue to carry out deadly hit-and-run attacks and ambushes, particularly from remote areas and desert hideouts.

Published in Dawn, July 23rd, 2024