Web pages about "Iraq"

"Chemical Ali" sentenced to death a second time

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 17:57:31 +0000

Two senior former officials in Saddam Hussein's government were sentenced to death on Tuesday. 'Ali Hassan al-Majid (nicknamed "Chemical Ali") and 'Abdul Ghani 'Abdul Ghafour, were sentenced by the Supreme Iraqi Criminal Tribunal (SICT) for their role in the killing of thousands of people during the 1991 anti-government uprising in southern Iraq.

Other defendants received prison sentences ranging from 15 years to life. They include former defence minister Sultan Hashim Ahmad al-Ta'i, who received 15 years, and Hussein Rashid al-Tikriti, who received a life sentence. Three others were acquitted.

If the death sentences against 'Ali Hassan al-Majid and 'Abdul Ghani 'Abdul Ghafour are upheld by the tribunal's Appeals Chamber, they will be executed within 30 days.

'Ali Hassan al-Majid, former Ba'ath Party commander of the northern region, Sultan Hashim Ahmad al-Ta'i and Hussain Rashid al-Tikriti have already been sentenced to death by the SICT for their roles in the so-called Anfal campaign of 1988 that led to the deaths of some 180,000 Iraqi Kurds. Their death sentences were upheld by the SICT's Appeals Chamber on 4 September 2007.

On 27 February 2008, Iraq's Presidential Council approved the death sentence imposed on 'Ali Hassan al-Majid but is reported to have argued that Sultan Hashim Ahmad al-Ta'i and Hussain Rashid al-Tikriti, as military personnel, were obeying orders and should not be executed. All three are still in US military custody.

The Iraqi and US governments signed a Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) on 27 November 2008 under which all those detained by US forces will be handed over to the Iraqi authorities after 31 December 2008. All former officials, including 'Ali Hassan al-Majid, Sultan Hashim Ahmad al-Ta'i, Hussain Rashid al-Tikriti and 'Abdul Ghani 'Abdul Ghafour, are likely to be executed.

Security agreement puts 16,000 Iraqi detainees at risk of torture

Fri, 28 Nov 2008 17:01:35 +0000

Thousands of Iraqis detained by US forces are at risk of torture or even execution, following the ratification of a security agreement between the US and Iraqi governments.

Under the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), which will take effect on 31 December, around 16,000 prisoners held by the US will be transferred to Iraqi custody.

Those at particular risk include former Ba’ath party officials or those who held posts under Saddam Hussain's government.

Ali Hassan al-Majid and two others sentenced to death for crimes committed under Saddam Hussain’s rule are likely to be executed if handed over to the Iraqi authorities.

"The Status of Forces Agreement does not provide any safeguards whatsoever for prisoners transferred to Iraqi custody," said Malcolm Smart, Director of Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Programme.

"These prisoners will potentially be moving from the frying pan into the fire. We receive persistent reports of gross human rights violations – including torture – taking place in Iraqi prisons and detention centres. The US must ensure that no one is transferred to Iraq custody if they would face a real risk of torture or other human rights violations."

Most of those detained by the US are held without charge or trial, some for more than five years, and without recourse to any independent review of their detention.

The Iraqi authorities are already holding thousands of people, many without charge or trial, and often in appalling conditions. Many have no access to lawyers. Others have been sentenced to death after trials which failed to meet international fair trial standards.

"We need to see evidence that there is systematic improvement," said Malcolm Smart. "Detainees officially registered and held only in recognised prisons; regular, independent, and effective visiting mechanisms; prompt access to lawyers and their families and to any necessary medical treatment; and their due process rights – including the right to challenge their detention before an independent tribunal – fully respected."

The SOFA contains no reference to more than 2,000 Iranians associated with the People's Mojahedeen Organization of Iran (PMOI), an Iranian opposition organization, who remain at Ashraf Camp in northern Iraq. They have been under the protection of US forces there for several years.

The Iraqi government is reported to have told the PMOI that those at Camp Ashraf must leave Iraq by 31 December 2008. Some Iraqi officials have suggested that they will be forcibly expelled if they fail to comply. According to Amnesty International, the Iranians would be at risk of serious human rights violations if they were forcibly returned to Iran.

Amnesty International also highlighted that while the agreement removes the immunity against prosecution of private contractors employed by the US Department of Defense, it makes no reference to other private military and security contractors, such as those employed by the US State Department, who have previously been accused of killing civilians in Iraq.

This would include the Blackwater security firm, which was accused of gross human rights violations last year and was employed by the US State Department.

Under the SOFA, which will replace the current UN mandate, US troops will pull back from urban areas by the end of June 2009 and withdraw from Iraq by the end of 2011. After 31 December, Iraqi authorities will have a greater say in the conduct of daily US military operations in Iraq.

Article 12 (1) of the SOFA states that Iraq has the primary right to exercise jurisdiction over members of the US forces and their civilian component for any grave premeditated felonies that they commit, when such crimes are committed outside agreed facilities and outside "duty status." However, the nature of these felonies and the procedures to be followed are not clarified, and it is the US authorities who will determine when its soldiers or employees were acting under "duty status."

Iraq: Security agreement puts detainees at risk of torture

Thu, 27 Nov 2008 17:01:08 +0000

Thousands of Iraqis detained by US forces will be at risk of torture or even execution if they are handed over to the Iraqi authorities, Amnesty International today warned.

The warning came as the Iraqi Parliament ratified the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) between the US and Iraqi governments. Under the agreement, which will take effect on 31 December 2008, around 16,000 prisoners held by the US will be transferred to Iraqi custody from the end of the year.

“The Status of Forces Agreement does not provide any safeguards whatsoever for prisoners transferred to Iraqi custody,” said Malcolm Smart, Director of Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Programme.

“These prisoners will potentially be moving from the frying pan into the fire,” said Malcolm Smart. “We receive persistent reports of gross human rights violations – including torture – taking place in Iraqi prisons and detention centres. The US must ensure that no one is transferred to Iraq custody if they would face a real risk of torture or other human rights violations.”

“We need to see evidence that there is systematic improvement: detainees officially registered and held only in recognised prisons; regular, independent, and effective visiting mechanisms; prompt access to lawyers and their families and to any necessary medical treatment; and their due process rights – including the right to challenge their detention before an independent tribunal – fully respected.”

The Iraqi authorities are already holding thousands of people, many without charge or trial, and often in appalling conditions. Many have no access to lawyers. Others have been sentenced to death after trials which failed to meet international fair trial standards.

The US is currently reported to hold around 16,000 prisoners in Iraq. Most are detainees who are held without charge or trial, some for more than five years, and without recourse to any independent review of their detention.

They include former Ba’ath party officials or held posts under Saddam Hussain's government, who could be at particular risk.

Ali Hassan al-Majid and two others sentenced to death for crimes committed under Saddam Hussain’s rule are likely to be executed if handed over to the Iraqi authorities.

The agreement contains no reference to the more than 2,000 Iranians associated with the People’s Mojahedeen Organization of Iran (PMOI), an Iranian opposition organization, who remain at Ashraf Camp in northern Iraq, where they have been under the protection of US forces for several years.

The Iraqi government is reported to have told the PMOI that those at Camp Ashraf must leave Iraq by 31 December 2008. Some Iraqi officials have suggested that they will be forcibly expelled if they fail to comply. According to Amnesty International, the Iranians would be at risk of serious human rights violations if they were forcibly returned to Iran.

Amnesty International also highlighted that while the agreement removes the immunity against prosecution of private contractors employed by the US Department of Defense, it makes no reference to other private military and security contractors, such as those employed by the US State Department, who have previously been accused of killing civilians in Iraq.

This would include the Blackwater security firm, which was accused of gross human rights violations last year, was employed by the US State Department.

Notes to editors:

• Under the SOFA, which will replace the current UN mandate, US troops will pull back from urban areas by the end of June 2009 and withdraw from Iraq by the end of 2011.
• After 31 December, Iraqi authorities will have a greater say in the conduct of daily US military operations in Iraq.
• Article 12 (1) of the SOFA states that Iraq has the primary right to exercise jurisdiction over members of the US forces and their civilian component for any grave premeditated felonies that they commit, when such crimes are committed outside agreed facilities and outside "duty status." However, the nature of these felonies and the procedures to be followed are not clarified, and it is the US authorities who will determine when its soldiers or employees were acting under "duty status."

UK Ministry of Defence agrees to compensate Iraqi torture victims

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 09:14:34 +0000

The family of an Iraqi hotel receptionist who died after being tortured over a period of 36 hours while detained by UK troops in Basra, Iraq, will be paid compensation by the UK Ministry of Defence.

Almost £3 million will be paid in recognition of the grave human rights violations to which he, and others detained at the same time as him, were subjected by members of the UK armed forces.

Baha Mousa, a 26-year-old father of two, died in September 2003. A post-mortem examination revealed 93 separate injuries on his body. A number of Iraqis detained at around the same time as him were also tortured and ill-treated.

It was announced on Thursday, 10 July, that the amount of compensation paid will total £2.83 million ($5.59 million), to be divided between the family of Baha Mousa and nine other men who were detained alongside him.

According to the lawyers who acted for him in the compensation claim, Baha Mousa’s father, Colonel Daoud Mousa, a former colonel in the Iraqi police force, said about the compensation award: “The death of my son is with me every day of my life. Today’s settlement will ease a little of that pain and will go some way to enabling his children and my grandchildren to rebuild their lives.”

Amnesty International said that it considers that this award of compensation is a necessary, although extremely belated, acknowledgement of the grave human rights violations to which Baha Mousa and those detained alongside him were subjected, and a step towards making reparation for those violations.

Amnesty International has been campaigning for the UK to hold a genuinely full, independent, impartial and thorough investigation into all of the circumstances of the torture and death of Baha Mousa, and the torture of other Iraqi nationals held alongside him.

In May 2008 the Ministry of Defence finally announced that a public inquiry would be held. The terms of reference of the inquiry are yet to be announced, but it has been confirmed that it will be held within the framework of the Inquiries Act 2005.

Amnesty International has long considered that any inquiry held under this legislation into an allegation of serious human rights violations will not be independent enough from the government for the inquiry to meet the standards required by international human rights law.

Iraqi refugees facing desperate situation

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 20:38:33 +0000

"Omar, a 69-year-old refugee from Baghdad, said he will die a 'slow death' if assistance is stopped. He and his family have depended on food and medical assistance since they fled to Syria in 2006." – UNHCR, May 2008.

Iraq remains one of the most dangerous places in the world. Its refugee crisis is worsening. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), since the US-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003, an estimated 4.7 million have been displaced both within and outside Iraq and for many the situation is desperate.

A new report by Amnesty International, Rhetoric and reality: the Iraqi refugee crisis, says that the international community continues to fail to respond to the crisis in a meaningful way. Countries like Jordan and Syria host most of the refugees but are simply not equipped to meet the needs of all those arriving.

Syria alone may be hosting more than a million refugees. As of 2007, only 1 percent of the total Iraqi displaced population was estimated to be in the industrialized world.

To mark World Refugee Day, Amnesty International has called on the international community and, in particular, those states who participated in the US-led invasion of Iraq, to take real steps to alleviate the suffering of those displaced. The organization said these countries must urgently act on their responsibility to assist the host nations and humanitarian organizations operating in the region to support the large numbers of refugees.

"Many refugees are finding it difficult to survive," said Philip Luther, Deputy Director of Amnesty International's Middle East and North Africa Programme. "They are banned from working and unable to pay rents, buy adequate food for themselves and their families, or obtain medical treatment. Those lucky enough to escape Iraq rely on savings which, for many, are rapidly running out."

Many families are destitute and facing impossible choices and new risks, like having to resort to child labour and the prospect of being forced through circumstances to undertake "voluntary" return to Iraq.

Humanitarian agencies cannot cope with growing demands as more refugees need help with the basics to survive. The UNHCR had planned that by the end of the year it would be distributing food to around 300,000 people in Syria alone. However, the agency recently announced that inadequate funding means that, by August 2008, it will not be able to "cover all basic health needs of Iraqis, and many serious and chronically ill Iraqis will not be able to receive their monthly medication."

Current food aid for 150,000 refugees in Syria and Jordan could be reduced, forcing many Iraqis "into further destitution and raise the likelihood of higher malnutrition rates and increased child labor."

Amnesty International believes it is imperative that the international community increase its contributions to humanitarian agencies such as UNHCR, as well as to the countries hosting Iraqi refugees. Furthermore, there must be a real and sustained effort to resettle vulnerable refugees, such as those with serious medical conditions, to countries where they will receive adequate care.

Manal (not her real name), a refugee living in Damascus, told Amnesty International in February 2008 that three of her children, aged between six and 15 years, work so the family can survive.

Her six-year-old boy sells chewing gum in the street, for about one US dollar a day; her 10-year-old daughter sells chewing gum about three days a week; her oldest son polishes shoes, for the equivalent of about US$2 a day. Her daughter is the only one who goes to school. The family fled to Syria in 2006 after their house in Baghdad was damaged by explosions.

Despite claims among the international community that an "improvement" in the security situation in Iraq has led to people "voluntarily" returning, in reality, most return because they have run out of money and can no longer survive. They return despite the real danger to their lives.

Apart from failing to provide adequate practical and financial support, some states are also rejecting the asylum claims of Iraqis at an alarming rate. More European states are deporting rejected asylum-seekers to Iraq, including countries like Sweden, once a positive example to its European neighbours. Some states are using indirect ways to return people to Iraq, for example cutting off assistance to rejected Iraqi asylum-seekers and therefore forcing them to return "voluntarily".

The failure to respond to the crisis is contributing to the severe deterioration of human rights protection for individuals forced to flee their homes in search of safety. Support is desperately needed so that host countries in the region can meet their own responsibilities in allowing access to all those fleeing violence and human rights abuses.

External Link:

Iraqis in Egypt: Time is running out (Video)

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Iraq: World governments misleading and failing Iraqi refugees

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 16:45:59 +0000

The international community is evading its responsibility towards refugees from Iraq by promoting a false picture of the security situation in Iraq when the country is neither safe nor suitable for return, Amnesty International said today.

In its new report, Rhetoric and reality: the Iraqi refugee crisis, which is based on recent research and interviews with Iraqi refugees, the organization said that the world's richest states are failing to provide the necessary assistance to Iraqi refugees, most of whom are plunged in despair and hurtling towards destitution.

"Governments have done little or nothing to help Iraqi refugees, failing in their moral, political and legal duty to share responsibility for them," said Amnesty International. "Instead, apathy and rhetoric have been the overwhelming response to one of the worst refugee crises in the world."

Amnesty International said that the Government of Iraq and states involved in the invasion of Iraq in 2003, in particular the USA and the UK, highlight "improved" security or "voluntary" returns to Iraq out of political expedience, to demonstrate that their military involvement has been a success.

"Rhetoric cannot hide the reality that the wider human rights situation in Iraq remains dire," said Amnesty International.

"People are being killed every month by armed groups, the Multinational Force, Iraqi security forces and private military and security guards. Kidnappings, torture, ill-treatment and arbitrary detention pervade the daily lives of Iraqis. People continue to attempt to flee, something that is now very difficult with the recent imposition of visa restrictions on Iraqis by Jordan and Syria."

According to the latest estimates of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the number of Iraqis who have fled their homes has now reached 4.7 million, the highest since the US-led invasion of Iraq and the subsequent internal armed conflict.

While Syria and Jordan have shouldered most of the refugee influx, they have now resorted to drastic measures such as restricting entry and deporting people who may be at risk of persecution, partly due to the lack of support from the international community.

Having exhausted savings, many refugees are now living in complete destitution and facing new dangers, such as being forced into so-called "voluntary" return to Iraq and child labour -- many families have been forced to send their children to work in the streets in a desperate bid to help them survive.

For some refugees, the difficulties they are facing in the host country are prompting them to make the difficult and dangerous decision to return to Iraq, either temporarily to collect a pension or food ration or for other such reasons, or more permanently because of their desperate situation, not because they feel they are no longer at risk of human rights abuses in Iraq.

They are making this decision as they feel they have no other option.

A 62-year-old retired Shi’a army officer, Majid, a widower with seven adult children all living in Baghdad, told Amnesty International in February that after attempting to find protection in Syria, with only the 50 lira (US$1) in his pocket, he had to return to Iraq. Even though he was extremely scared, he had lost hope, saying "If I die, I die." Majid fled Iraq in February 2008 after two of his nephews, Mansour and Sami, aged 17 and 19, were beheaded by members of an armed group north of Baghdad. He exhausted his savings in Syria and was soon left with nothing. Weeping, he explained to Amnesty International that he had no alternative but to return to Iraq.

Many European countries are now attempting to deport Iraqis, sometimes to some of the most dangerous parts of Iraq such as the south and central regions. In addition to taking direct actions forcing Iraqis to return, they are using indirect methods such as cutting off basic assistance and services to rejected asylum-seekers in order to force them to “voluntarily” return to Iraq.

Sweden, which is host to the largest number of Iraqi refugees in Europe and once a positive example to its neighbours, has now changed its approach and is denying the vast majority of Iraqis protection and forcibly returning some to very dangerous areas.

Amnesty International is greatly concerned that the failure to respond to this crisis will worsen an already dire situation. Amongst other things, it is calling on the international community to:
• urgently and substantially raise sustainable financial assistance;
• end practices such as forcible returns that put lives at further risk;
• cease practices that result in coerced “voluntary” returns;
• allow individuals to seek paid employment; and
• extensively increase resettlement places for the most vulnerable refugees to start a new life in a third country.

Amnesty International is also calling on the governments of Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Egypt, as well as those of other countries in the region, to allow unrestricted access to people fleeing Iraq, cease all deportations to Iraq, and grant refugees access to the labour market.

"The international community must make a true commitment to assist Iraq's displaced people by substantially boosting sustainable financial assistance, ending forcible returns, stopping practices that result in coerced voluntary returns and offering increased numbers of resettlement places," said Amnesty International.

UK inquiry into torture and death of Iraqi in UK custody must be independent

Fri, 16 May 2008 15:01:04 +0000

Amnesty International has welcomed the public inquiry into the case of an Iraqi hotel receptionist who died after being tortured over a period of 36 hours while detained by UK troops in Basra.

Baha Mousa, a 26-year-old father of two, died in September 2003. A post-mortem examination revealed 93 separate injuries on his body.

Amnesty International said: "This recognition by the UK authorities of the need for a full public inquiry into the case is long-overdue. The family of Baha Mousa and their legal representatives, along with NGOs, including Amnesty International, have spent years campaigning for such an inquiry.

"It should not have taken so long for the UK authorities to acknowledge that an inquiry was needed, given the shocking facts of this case and the obvious inadequacies of the initial investigations," the organization said.

“What is now needed – at the very least – is a genuinely full, independent, impartial and thorough investigation into all of the circumstances of the torture and death of Baha Mousa, and the torture of a number of other Iraqi nationals detained at around the same time as him,” said Amnesty International.

Amnesty International has called for the inquiry to be given a broad enough remit to allow it to fully investigate how, when, where, why and by whom the advice was given that it was lawful for members of the UK armed forces to ‘condition’ detainees by the use of techniques such as hooding, sleep deprivation and placing in stress positions.

These techniques have long been outlawed in the UK, but had become, in the words of the judge presiding over the court martial arising from the case in 2007, “standard operating procedure” among the troops responsible for detaining Baha Mousa. The judge hearing the court martial described it as “a serious failing in the chain of command all the way up to Brigade and beyond”.

The terms of reference of the inquiry in this case are yet to be announced, but it has been confirmed that the intention is to hold it under the controversial Inquiries Act 2005. Amnesty International believes that this would damage the inquiry’s independence, impartiality and thoroughness. An inquiry under the Inquiries Act would allow the Secretary of State for Defence – the minister with responsibility for the armed forces, whose conduct will be the subject of the inquiry – significant and wide-ranging powers to impose restrictions on the inquiry if he thinks it is necessary “in the public interest” to do so.

These include the power to set the terms of reference for the inquiry, and to change them during the inquiry; to appoint the chair of the inquiry and, in consultation with the chair, to appoint all the members of the inquiry panel; to bring the inquiry to an end at any point; to impose restrictions on public access to the inquiry hearings, and public disclosure of the evidence considered in the inquiry; and to withhold any material from the final published report of the inquiry.

Amnesty International is worried that any inquiry held under this legislation into an allegation of serious human rights violations may not be independent enough from the government to meet the standards required by international human rights law.

Refugee camp trauma continues for Palestinians

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 11:27:48 +0000

More than 3,000 Palestinian refugees are currently cut off from the rest of the world in dire conditions without access to adequate humanitarian assistance.

In March 2008, Amnesty International delegates met with Palestinian refugees stranded in al-Tanf camp in no-man’s land between the borders of Iraq and Syria.

Al-Tanf camp, a narrow strip of land wedged between a concrete wall and the main transit road from Baghdad to Damascus, is dry and dusty. Temperatures soar to 50ºC in summer and plunge to below freezing in winter.

The camp accommodates hundreds of Palestinian refugees seeking to flee from Iraq, where they were formerly long term residents. Palestinians have been among those particularly targeted for sectarian killings and violence.

Overcrowded tents are the only protection from the heat, the snow and the blinding sandstorms. Danger is everywhere, especially for the children. The land is infested with scorpions and snakes.

The school tents are unprotected from the busy highway, which has already claimed the life of a boy knocked down by a truck.

According to residents who spoke to Amnesty International delegates visiting the camp in March 2008, heating and cooking systems in the tents regularly cause fires that destroy tents – 42 tents in all so far.

Despite the unsafe and harsh conditions at al-Tanf, the number of Palestinian refugees from Iraq in the camp is growing as Palestinians who entered Syria on false passports are identified and deported to the camp. Many camp residents described to Amnesty International the horrific events that prompted them to flee Iraq and have left them traumatized.

The people in al-Tanf are also traumatized by the harsh conditions in the camp and the fear that they may be stuck there for many more years. One resident pleaded with Amnesty International delegates to "save us from this hell."

In addition, some 2000 Palestinian refugees are at al-Waleed camp in the Iraqi desert, facing even greater hardship as access by aid organizations and the UN Refugee Agency is extremely difficult. Their living conditions are dire and the only solution to their plight is resettlement to a third country.

As of February 2008, almost 300 other Palestinians were in al-Hol camp at al-Hassakah, north-east Syria; most were moved there from the Iraq-Jordan border in May 2006.

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) believes resettlement in third countries is the only possible durable solution for the Palestinians from Iraq at the present time. While hundreds of thousands of refugees have fled from Iraq to Syria and Jordan, both countries have generally barred the entry of Palestinian refugees from Iraq.

The Chilean government has offered to resettle an initial group of 116 Palestinians from al-Tanf. So far some 64 have arrived in Chile with the remaining group due to follow shortly.

A number of other governments outside the Middle East are reported to have said that they will resettle some of al-Tanf’s residents, but the refugees’ plight is desperate and resettlement to a safe third country cannot come quickly enough.

Amnesty International has launched a global campaign to draw attention to the plight of Palestinian refugees from Iraq highlighting the need for immediate action.

The organization has asked its members and supporters to call for urgent international help in resettling these Palestinians and other particularly vulnerable refugees from Iraq.

Download interviews with some of the refugees in the camp:

Interview with a Palestinian women from the camp

Interview with a doctor from the camp

interview with Muhammad from the camp

Iraq: 28 people executed after what seems to be hasty and unfair trials

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 16:40:50 +0000

The execution of 28 people this week following what appears to be hasty and unfair trials makes it urgent for the Iraqi authorities to establish a moratorium on the death penalty, Amnesty International said today.

“Those executed were arrested in clashes that took place in the past three weeks. For them to be arrested, sentenced and executed within such a short period raises serious concerns about the trial process,” said Amnesty International. “The Iraqi authorities must disclose all relevant information about these trials, including whether those executed had access to legal representation or not.”

Amnesty International has repeatedly expressed its concerns about the trials conducted by criminal courts in Iraq, and whose procedures fall short of international standards for fair trials.

“The Iraqi government argued in 2004 that reinstating capital punishment would curb the widespread violence in the country,” said Amnesty International. “The reality, however, is that violence has continued unabated and the death penalty has not been a deterrent.”

The death penalty has been used extensively since its reintroduction in 2004 and hundreds of people have been sentenced to death after grossly unfair trials. Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all circumstances as a violation of the right to life and as the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment.

Iraq executions follow apparently unfair trials

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 17:25:43 +0000

Twenty-eight people have been executed in Iraq this week following what appear to have been hasty and unfair trials. Those executed were arrested in clashes that took place in the past three weeks.

Amnesty International has said that, for them to be arrested, sentenced and executed within such a short period raises serious concerns about the trial process. The organization has called on the Iraqi authorities to disclose all relevant information about these trials, including whether those executed had access to legal representation or not.

"The circumstances of these executions make it urgent for the Iraqi authorities to establish a moratorium on the death penalty," Amnesty International said today.

Amnesty International has repeatedly expressed its concerns about the trials conducted by criminal courts in Iraq, and whose procedures fall short of international standards for fair trials.

"The Iraqi government argues that reinstating capital punishment would curb the widespread violence in the country," said Amnesty International. "The reality, however, is that violence has continued unabated and the death penalty has not been a deterrent."

The death penalty is being used extensively since its reintroduction in 2004 and hundreds of people have been sentenced to death after grossly unfair trials. Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all circumstances as a violation of the right to life and as the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment.