IRAQ: 36 militants to be executed by hanging

Reports have it on Sunday, August 21 from Iraq that 36 militants were sentenced to death by hanging over the mass murder of hundreds of majorly Shi’ite soldiers at a camp north of Baghdad, the country’s capital at least two years ago.



The number of people to face the hangman’s noose is the highest in a single day by the Iraqi administration since Islamic State militants gained control of some parts of northern and western Iraq in 2014.

According to the country’s ministry of justice, it informed that the executions were done at a prison in the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriya.

No fewer than 1,700 troops were murdered in 2014 after they escaped from Camp Speicher, a former U.S. military base by the north of Saddam Hussein’s home town of Tikrit, when it was taken over by Islamic State.

The administration came under immense pressure from local Shi’ite politicians to kill the convicts sentenced to death after a huge bombing that was aimed at a shopping street in Iraq’s capital on July 3, where more than 324 people lost their lives.

The country’s ministry of justice announced days later that 45 death sentences have been executed since the beginning of 2016.

The United Nations stated on Monday, August 1 that Iraq’s determination to quickly do away with the execution of militants could lead to the death of people who knew nothing about the killings of the soldiers.

The UN stated that as many as 1,200 militants are said to be on death row in Iraq, as well as possibly hundreds who have exhausted appeals.

“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.” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein stated.

Haidar al-Zamili, Iraq’s minister of justice denied the allegations on the UN’s worries, stating that each case “was reviewed in detail” before being sent to Iraq’s president Fuad Masum, whose approval was necessary for any death sentence to be executed.

“There will be more executions,” the justice minister added, speaking at a ceremony to mark the hangings in Nasiriya, where the families of the Speicher victims were present.

Iraq has been in turmoil in the hands of militants of various shades. About a month ago, it was learnt that Falluja, a city in Iraq has been in the hands of the Islamic State for two-and-a-half years.