Global outcry over Iraq’s mass executions, authorities hung 21 under charges of terrorism

On Monday Iraq’s internal ministry issued a statement confirming the execution of 21 individuals and lending an explanation for the act of mass executions adding that those hung were linked to the ISIS. The statement said that the executions were carried out at a prison in the southern Iraqi city of Nassiriya. It added that the death penalty was given to the perpetrators who were involved in two suicide attacks, which killed dozens of people the northern town of Tal Afar.

The authorities did not reveal the identities of the executed convicts. This got the attention of rights group, who raised voice against what they referred as “partial justice”. The Iraqi authorities have been conducting mass executions as part of its military campaign against the Daesh group, since 2014 to 2017. The campaign was highly supported by US forces.

Amnesty International slammed Iraqi government for conducting mass executions in the name of justice and compromising the process though flawed trials leading to unfair convictions. Though Iraq contested that their trials were fair.

In response to gross violation of human rights by Iraqi authorities, Lynn Maalouf, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa, said: “It is high time the Iraqi authorities put an end to executing people. Retaliatory executions not only fail to deliver justice to the victims and to their families, they serve to reinforce perceptions of partial justice, at a time when the authorities are mum in regards to other serious violations such as torture and enforced disappearances that are still taking place across the country.

At a time when the authorities are pressing ahead to close the chapter of the conflict with IS, they should ensure they are not doing so by perpetuating the sort of actions that have been highlighted as the seeds of previous cycles of violence – which yesterday’s tragic execution is a stark example of.

Lynn Maalouf, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa

Daesh fighters had taken over a third of Iraq in 2014, with an aim to establish caliphate and were later defeated both there and in neighbouring Syria over the next three years.