Iraq has hanged 42 prisoners condemned to death for crimes including kidnapping, killing members of the security forces, car bombings and other attacks, a justice ministry statement said on Monday.
It said Sunday’s executions were carried out in Nasiriyah prison in the south and that those put to death were convicted under Iraq’s counter-terrorism law. Iraq has faced widespread criticism from diplomats, analysts and human rights groups who say that due to a flawed justice system, those being executed are not necessarily guilty of the crimes for which they were sentenced to die.
Lynn Maalouf, Amnesty International’s Middle East Research Director, condemned the latest executions and said that use of the death penalty “will not make the country or its people safer.”
“The Iraqi authorities have a deplorable track record when it comes to use of the death penalty. In many cases previously people have been put to death after deeply unfair trials and in some cases after being tortured to ‘confess’,” Maalouf said in a statement.The United Nations said on Aug. 1 that Iraq’s efforts to speed up the execution of militants could result in innocent people being put to death.An estimated 1,200 people are on death row in Iraq, including possibly hundreds who have exhausted appeals, the U.N. statement said.
“Given the weaknesses of the Iraqi justice system, and the current environment in Iraq, I am gravely concerned that innocent people have been and may continue to be convicted and executed, resulting in gross, irreversible miscarriages of justice,” U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra‘ad al-Hussein said in the statement.Justice Minister Haidar al-Zamili dismissed the concern, saying each case “was reviewed in detail” before being sent to Iraqi President Fuad Masum, whose approval is needed for a death sentence to be carried out.
“There will be more executions,” Zamili added, speaking at a ceremony to mark the hangings in Nasiriya, attended by the families of the Speicher victims and broadcast on state TV.
