Iraq Orders Hundreds of Terrorism Convicts Executed After Dead Hostages Found

Former ISIS militant with her daughter in Iraqi court.

Iraq’s prime minister has ordered the immediate execution of all death row terror convicts after militant group Islamic State (ISIS) killed eight hostages.

Haider al-Abadi said the executions would avenge the deaths of the captives, whose bodies were found next to a highway north of Baghdad on Wednesday, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Abadi ordered “the immediate punishment of terrorists condemned to death whose sentences have passed the decisive stage,” the prime minister’s office said. The order relates to all those whose appeal process has been exhausted. AFP cited an Iraqi judicial source who said more than 300 people have been condemned to death for ISIS membership.

Iraq’s criminal justice system is creaking under the weight of tens of thousands of detainees as its forces round up remaining ISIS elements and root out suspected sympathizers. Because Iraqi authorities refuse to provide statistics, it is hard to know exactly how many prisoners are being held or executed.

Analysis by Associated Press suggests at least 19,000 people have been detained, accused of terrorism offenses. The estimate is based on a spreadsheet of prisoners provided by an anonymous Iraqi official. The real number of prisoners is likely even higher, as many others are being held by military intelligence and Kurdish forces.

AP estimated that 3,130 people have been sentenced to death for links to ISIS and other militant links since 2013. Those sentenced to die include the sister of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and around 100 foreign women who traveled to join ISIS’s self-declared caliphate. Thousands of others of prisoners have been handed long jail terms.

The government has been accused of heavy-handed sentencing. According to Human Rights Watch, those sentenced to death include includes cooks and people who worked in ISIS-run hospitals.

Abadi has previously called for an accelerated rate of executions as Iraqi criminal infrastructure struggles to deal with the huge influx of prisoners. Since 2014, at least 250 hangings have been carried out. One hundred of those took place in in 2017, marking a clear effort to fast-track cases, AP said.

Belkis Wille, a senior Iraq researcher for Human Rights Watch told Newsweek that the organization objects to the death penalty being applied in any circumstances. Wille—who has spent significant time observing Iraqi courts and judges—said the organization is particularly concerned about the situation in Iraq because “these trials don’t need (sic) even the most basic due process standards. In that context, it is even more concerning that these are then trials that are leading to people being executed.”

Iraqi authorities began executing convicts on Thursday, with at least 12 people killed. The executions were announced via a message posted to Abadi's Facebook page.

ISIS released a video on Saturday showing six captured police officers and members of the Hashed al-Shaabi paramilitary force. The militants said they would kill the hostages unless Iraqi authorities released Sunni Muslim women held in its prisons within three days.

Abadi suggested the hostages were likely already dead when the video was released. Their bodies were among the eight found decomposing and strapped with explosive vests in Tel Sharaf in Iraq’s Salaheddin province on Wednesday.

“Our security and military forces will take forceful revenge against these terrorist cells,” Abadi said. “We promise that we will kill or arrest those who committed this crime.

This article has been updated to include the fact that executions have begun.

Source: Newsweek, David Brennan, June 29, 2018

⚑ | Report an error, an omission, a typo; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece, a comment; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: deathpenaltynews@gmail.com.

Opposed to Capital Punishment? Help us keep this blog up and running! DONATE!

"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde

Singapore executes three drug mules over two days

Singapore hanged three people for drug offences last week, bringing the total number of executions to 17 this year - the highest since 2003. These come a week before a constitutional challenge against the death penalty for drug offences is due to be heard. Singapore has some of the world's harshest anti-drug laws, which it says are a necessary deterrent to drug crime, a major issue elsewhere in South East Asia. Anyone convicted of trafficking - which includes selling, giving, transporting or administering - more than 15g of diamorphine, 30g of cocaine, 250g of methamphetamine and 500g of cannabis in Singapore will be handed the death sentence.

Florida | After nearly 50 years on death row, Tommy Zeigler seeks final chance at freedom

The Winter Garden Police chief was at a party on Christmas Eve 1975 when he received a phone call from his friend Tommy Zeigler, the owner of a furniture store on Dillard Street. “I’ve been shot, please hurry,” Zeigler told the chief as he struggled for breath. When police arrived at the store, Zeigler, 30, managed to unlock the door and then collapsed “with a gaping bullet hole through his lower abdomen,” court records show. In the store, detectives found a gruesome, bloody crime scene and several guns. Four other people — Zeigler’s wife, his in-laws and a laborer — lay dead.

Louisiana death row inmate freed after nearly 30 years as overturned conviction upends case

A Louisiana man who spent nearly 30 years on death row walked out of prison Wednesday after a judge overturned his conviction and granted him bail. Jimmie Duncan, now in his 60s, was sentenced to death in 1998 for the alleged rape and drowning of his girlfriend’s 23-month-old daughter, Haley Oliveaux — a case long clouded by disputed forensic testimony. His release comes months after a state judge ruled that the evidence prosecutors used to secure the conviction was unreliable and rooted in discredited bite-mark analysis.

Oklahoma board recommends clemency for inmate set to be executed next week

A voting board in Oklahoma decided Wednesday to recommend clemency for Tremane Wood, a death row inmate who is scheduled to receive a lethal injection next week at the state penitentiary in McAlester. Wood, 46, faces execution for his conviction in the 2001 murder of Ronnie Wipf, a migrant farmworker, at an Oklahoma City hotel on New Year's Eve, court records show. The recommendation was decided in a 3-2 vote by the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board, consisting of five members appointed by either the governor or the state's top judicial official, according to CBS News affiliate KWTV. Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Sitt will consider the recommendation as he weighs whether to grant or deny Wood's clemency request, which would mean sparing him from execution and reducing his sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Vietnam | Woman sentenced to death for poisoning 4 family members with cyanide

A woman in Dong Nai Province in southern Vietnam was sentenced to death on Thursday for killing family members including two young children in a series of cyanide poisonings that shocked her community. The Dong Nai People's Court found 39-year-old Nguyen Thi Hong Bich guilty of murder and of illegally possessing and using toxic chemicals. Judges described her actions as "cold-blooded, inhumane and calculated," saying Bich exploited the trust of her victims and "destroyed every ethical bond within her family."

Afghanistan | Two Sons Of Executed Man Also Face Death Penalty, Says Taliban

The Taliban governor’s spokesperson in Khost said on Tuesday that two sons of a man executed earlier that day have also been sentenced to death. Their executions, he said, have been postponed because the heir of the victims is not currently in Afghanistan. Mostaghfer Gurbaz, spokesperson for the Taliban governor in Khost, also released details of the charges against the man executed on Tuesday, identified as Mangal. He said Mangal was accused of killing members of a family.

Afghanistan's Taliban rulers carry out public execution in sports stadium

The man had been convicted of killing 13 members of a family, including children, and was executed by one of their relatives, according to police. Afghanistan's Taliban authorities carried out the public execution of a man on Tuesday convicted of killing 13 members of a family, including several children, earlier this year. Tens of thousands of people attended the execution at a sports stadium in the eastern city of Khost, which the Supreme Court said was the eleventh since the Taliban seized power in 2021 in the wake of the chaotic withdrawal of US and NATO forces.

Utah | Ralph Menzies dies on death row less than 3 months after his execution was called off

Judge was set to consider arguments in December about Menzies’ mental fitness Ralph Menzies, who spent more than 3 decades on Utah’s death row for the 1986 murder of Maurine Hunsaker, has died. Menzies, 67, died of “presumed natural causes at a local hospital” Wednesday afternoon, according to the Utah Department of Corrections. Matt Hunsaker, Maurine Hunsaker’s son, said Menzies’ death “was a complete surprise.” “First off, I’d say that I’m numb. And second off, I would say, grateful,” Hunsaker told Utah News Dispatch. “I’m grateful that my family does not have to endure this for the holidays.”

Iran carries out public hanging of "double-rapist"

Iran on Tuesday publicly executed a man after convicting him of raping two women in the northern province of Semnan. The execution was carried out in the town of Bastam after the Supreme Court upheld the verdict, the judiciary's official outlet Mizan Online reported. Mizan cited the head of the provincial judiciary, Mohammad Akbari, as saying the ruling had been 'confirmed and enforced after precise review by the Supreme Court'. The provincial authority said the man had 'deceived two women and committed rape by force and coercion', adding that he used 'intimidation and threats' to instil fear of reputational harm in the victims.

Burkina Faso to bring back death penalty

Burkina Faso's military rulers will bring back the death penalty, which was abolished in 2018, the country's Council of Ministers announced on Thursday. "This draft penal code reinstates the death penalty for a number of offences, including high treason, acts of terrorism, acts of espionage, among others," stated the information service of the Burkinabe government. Burkina Faso last carried out an execution in 1988.

Death Penalty News

Search This Blog