Capital Punishment Returns to Iraq

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

By Jonathan Finer and Naseer Nouri
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, May 26, 2005; Page A16

BAGHDAD -- Three men convicted of murder, rape and kidnapping sat before the judge, awaiting their fates. But first they had to face their victims' seething families.

"They broke his arms. They broke his legs. They took out his eyeballs," one woman said at the hearing Sunday in the city of Kut southeast of Baghdad, describing what the men had done to her son. "Death penalty. I want the death penalty."

A man in the back of the crowded courtroom held a sign that said: "We do not accept any sentence less than death."

Moments later, the spectators got their wish. The three alleged members of the insurgent group Ansar al-Sunna Army were condemned to be hanged "in the next 10 days," according to the sentence imposed by the special criminal court.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/25/AR2005052501970.html

[Blackthorn]

1. I guess that's part of a "democracy"?

[newyawker99]

8. Hi Blackthorn!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[bemildred]

2. People get killed in Iraq for freaking out at a checkpoint. nt

[MisterP]

5. or even braking like they're supposed to

[Occulus]

3. I didn't know it left in the first place. n/t

[daleo]

4. Bush turned the whole country into a giant death penalty.

For Iraqis, U.S. military, contractors, and anyone else who might wander by.

On edit - But it is Kafkaesque; nobody knows what crime they committed to get the death penalty, except Bush who doesn't even get charged. In fact, the main murderer gets to be judge and jury.

[fortyfeetunder]

6. Interesting

being executed for rape. What happened to the rape victim?

[wellst0nev0ter]

7. Could The U.S. Policemen - I Mean Soldier - Be Tried?

If not, then just another kangaroo court, which administers the most brutal form of execution imaginable - hanging.