Shkoi Kurdistan-
Iraqi authorities in the southern part of the country have executed five people convicted of terror charges, according to security sources.
The prisoners hanged in Iraq’s southern Dhi Qar province on Tuesday were all Iraqi nationals convicted of terrorism, according to security sources who spoke to AFP.
Nasiriyah Central Prison, where the executions were carried out, is notorious for its poor conditions.
The executions come despite outrage from international actors – particularly the rights watchdog Human Rights Watch (HRW) and the European Union – over the Iraq’s human rights record on capital punishment.
In November, Iraqi authorities reportedly executed 21 people convicted of terrorism charges in Nasiriyah prison.
Soon after, the European Union and human rights groups condemned the executions amid continued claims of unfair trials and interrogations in which torture is reportedly common in a bid to extract confessions from the accused.
“The European Union condemns in the strongest terms the criminal actions for which they were sentenced and expresses its sincere sympathy to any victims and their families. At the same time, the European Union recalls its opposition to the use of capital punishment under any circumstances,” an EU spokesperson said at the time.
Likewise, the New York-based HRW said: “There is pervasive evidence of flawed terrorism trials in Iraq, which has one of the highest execution rates in the world and where defendants are routinely denied their due process rights. After many secret executions, in August 2019, authorities released Ministry of Justice data indicating that 8,022 detainees were on death row and that the state had executed over 100 that year.”
Thousands of Islamic State suspects have been captured, put on trial, and imprisoned after the extremist group was “territorially defeated” in Iraqi and Syria.
