adminBAGHDAD — The Iraqi Ministry of Justice yesterday said it executed 26 convicted prisoners two days ago over terror charges, despite international calls on Baghdad to end the death penalty in the country. A statement issued by the ministry said that the executions were carried out on Sunday after the presidency approved their penalties according to the Iraqi law.
It said that among the executed convicts, there was Adel al-Mashhadani, former head of Sunni paramilitary group known as Sahwa of Fadel neighbourhood in central Baghdad, who was arrested in 2009 for sectarian killings against Shiites.
The Sahwa militia, also known as the Awakening Council or the Sons of Iraq, consists of armed groups, including some powerful anti-US Sunni insurgent groups, who turned their rifles against the al-Qaida network after the latter adopted hardline Islam and exercised indiscriminate killings against both Shiite and Sunni Muslim communities.
The convicts were all Iraqi men and were executed after they were found guilty for “carrying out heinous terrorist crimes against the Iraqi people,” the statement quoted the Minister of Justice Hassan al-Shimmary as saying.
The increasing of executions in Iraq sparked calls to stop use of capital punishment by the UN mission in Iraq, the European Union and some international human rights groups, which have criticised the lack of transparency in the proceedings of the Iraqi courts.
Death penalty in Iraq was suspended for over a year on June 10, 2003. However, the Iraqi government reinstated it on August 8, 2004, saying it would curb the widespread violence in the country. — AP
Online Reporter