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After acquittal of ex-death row inmate, debate needed on Japan's death penalty

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Japan should be ensuring the safety of its citizens, but instead it is taking people's lives. Is it acceptable to maintain the ultimate penalty under such circumstances? This is a serious question for society. The acquittal of 88-year-old Iwao Hakamada, who had been handed the death penalty, has been finalized after prosecutors decided not to appeal the verdict issued by the Shizuoka District Court during his retrial.

Iraq hands death penalty to convicted drug dealer

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ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A Baghdad court on Monday handed a death sentence for a drug dealer of foreign nationality accused of bringing narcotics into the country, state media reported. 

“The convict brought narcotic substances into Iraq for the purpose of trafficking them and selling them among drug users,” state media said, citing a statement by Baghdad’s Karkh Criminal Court. 

The verdict was issued in accordance with Article 27 of the Iraqi Narcotics and Psychotropic Substances Law. 

The Article states that any suspect charged with exporting, importing, producing, or planting narcotic substances “with the intent of trading it” shall be sentenced to either death of life imprisonment. 

There has been an alarming rise in drug dealing and use in Iraq in recent years, despite strict measures taken by the government to curb the phenomenon.

Iraq’s Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani has ordered the establishment of rehabilitation centers in all Iraqi provinces, excluding the Kurdistan Region, as part of his cabinet’s commitment to combat drugs with the same determination as it fights terrorism.

In 2023, more than 19,000 people were arrested across Iraq on drug-related charges and over 15 tons of psychotropic substances were seized.

Source: rudaw.net, Staff, May 12, 2024

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

— Oscar Wilde



Location: Iraq
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