11 people executed by hanging for ‘terrorism’

At least 11 people were executed by hanging this week in Iraq for “terrorism” and participation in the jihadist organization Islamic statetwo security and health officials said.

For Iraqi justice, “terrorism” but also intentional homicides, even trafficking drugs, may entail the ultimate punishment, specifically the execution by hanging of the perpetrators. Decrees authorizing executions must be signed by the president of Iraq.

Using the Islamic State’s Arabic acronym, a security official in Di Qar province in southern Iraq confirmed “the execution of 11 Daesh terrorists in Nasiriyah prison under the supervision of a team from the Ministry of Justice.”

An official of the medical authorities in Di Carr, whose service receives the bodies, confirmed that they received “the bodies of 11 convicts who were executed on Monday”.

“They were executed under Article 4 of the Anti-Terrorism Act,” according to the source, who asked not to be named because of the sensitive nature of the matter.

The 11 were from the western province of Salahuddin and the bodies of seven of them were collected by their families from the Nasiriyah forensic institute, the official said.

For years, Iraqi courts have handed down hundreds of death sentences and life sentences as the penal code provides up to the maximum sentence for anyone who joined a “terrorist organization,” whether or not the accused fought in its ranks.

Iraq has been criticized in the past for hundreds of trials that have been described as summary, confessions extracted after torture or ineffective legal representation, according to human rights advocates.

In a statement today, Amnesty International reported the execution on Monday 22 April of 13 men “convicted on very vague charges of terrorism”. Eleven of them “were convicted of joining the so-called armed organization Islamic State”, he clarified.

The other two, held since 2008, were convicted “of terrorism charges under the criminal code at the end of a patently unfair trial,” Amnesty International said, citing their lawyer.