Iraq: Over 900 prisoners face execution by New Year

[sabra]

Source: Amnesty Intl

17 women among those set to die with fears government is 'playing politics'

Iraq is preparing to execute hundreds of prisoners, including 17 women, warned Amnesty International today, as it issued an 'urgent action' appeal to try to prevent the deaths.

The 900-plus prisoners have exhausted all their appeals and their death sentences are said to have been ratified by the Presidential Council, meaning that they could be executed at any time. Amnesty supporters are contacting Iraqi embassies around the world, including that in London, in a bid to stop the executions.

The condemned prisoners have been convicted of offences such as murder and kidnapping, but many are likely to have been sentenced after unfair trials. The 17 women are thought to include a group known to have been held on death row at the 5th section (al-Shu'ba al-Khamissa) of Baghdad's al-Kadhimiya Prison.

...

Amnesty is warning that Iraq's use of capital punishment is already spiralling. At least 120 people are known to have been executed in Iraq this year, greatly up on the 34 executions recorded during 2008.

Iraq is now one of the world's heaviest users of the death penalty. After the US-controlled Coalition Provisional Authority suspended the death penalty following the toppling of Saddam Hussein's government in 2003, Iraq's subsequent reintroduction of capital punishment led to a rapid acceleration in death sentences and executions. Despite this, and contrary to some claims made by the Iraqi authorities, use of the death penalty has not seen a drop in crime levels in the country, with rises and falls in insurgency violence having no discernible relation to execution rates.


Read more: http://www.amnesty.org.uk/news_details.asp?NewsID=18536

[ixion]

1. well, I'm certainly glad we spent all that money and all those lives to 'liberate' Iraq

they're looking mighty librefied, yep. :eyes:

[Jefferson23]

2. Yep, they are Texasfied too!

[rhett o rick]

9. Yes, If Iraq is the country leading in executions, Texas cant be far behind. nt

[RKP5637]

4. +100! Sadly, I think similar will eventually occur in Afghanistan when we declare them supposedly

liberated or whatever one will call it...

[HopeHoops]

3. Dubya must be jealous.

He isn't allowed to kill anymore.

[Wilms]

5. Hey, wait! I thought Saddam... Oh, never mind. n/t

[boycottfaux]

6. HYPOCRACY

Since when should the United States interfere with Iraqi
executions?

How many people has the United States executed in 2009?

In Huntsville, Texas, alone??

WHO ARE WE TO CRITICIZE???

[xocet]

8. Re: Peer F ?

Standard-issue spelling problems.

Standard-issue problems relating to priorities - potential hypocrisy versus state-sanctioned murder.

IDK BISL

[The Stranger]

7. Sure glad the neonazicons invaded and saved those people from their government.