Iraq: Prime Minister and Ministry of Justice Call for Executions of "Terrorists" on Death Row
On Monday 4 July 2016, a day after the two deadly Baghdad bombings, the Iraqi Ministry of Justice announced the implementation of death sentences against five convicts on death row, upon request of the Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi. New death sentences are soon to be announced said the Ministry of Justice, affirming that it would continue "to deliver just punishment to those whose hands are stained with the blood of Iraqis".
Concerned over this public call to carry out executions in retaliation for the Karrada attacks, in a country where death sentences are systematically handed down following flawed trials and often for crimes falling under the vague Iraqi Anti-Terrorism Law, on 8 July 2016, Alkarama wrote to the Special Rapporteur on summary executions (SR SUMEX) and the Special Rapporteur on human rights and counterterrorism (SRCT).
Following the two devastating attacks that occurred on 3 July in the neighbourhood of Karrada in Baghdad and that killed more than 200 people injuring hundred others, five executions were carried out in the morning that same day, without specifying the crimes the detainees were sentenced for. Third most frequent user of the capital punishment, the Government has repeatedly affirmed that such a sentence would allegedly serve as a deterrent to acts of terrorism and would "satisfy the demands of justice and retribution".
Many individuals, including political opponents, have therefore been sentenced to death under the vague provisions of the Anti-Terrorism Law No. 13 of 2005 and following heavily flawed trials during which confessions extracted under torture were often used as the only piece of evidence. In addition, there has been a significant increase in the number of extra-judicial executions perpetrated, in the most utter impunity, by the Iraqi security services against civilians, most recently during the battle for the liberation of Fallujah from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS). These mass killings and executions clearly amount to war crimes and should thus be referred to the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Alkarama deplores that in its public statement, the Ministry of Justice affirmed that Iraq "reject[s] categorically any political or international interference requesting to put an end to the death sentences on the grounds of human rights or for any other reason". With such a position, Iraq is reaffirming its total disrespect for the fundamental principles enshrined in international human rights law and humanitarian law protecting the life and the rights of its citizens.
The recent execution of the five Iraqi convicts were carried out in total disrespect of the International Covenant for Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) to which Iraq is a party since 1971, particularly its Articles 6 and 14 respectively protecting the right to life and the right to a fair trial. Alkarama particularly condemns the continued use of the capital punishment and its systematic recourse in counterterrorism policies and wishes to recall that the right to life is non-derogable, hence a right that must be respected at all times, including in times of conflict or in the framework of the fight against terrorism.
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