Iraq has over 1000 prisoners facing execution

Iraq is still one of the most dangerous place in the world, US soldiers are still getting killed by forces resisting occupation, living conditions for most Iraqis are worse than they were before the war, Obama’s promise to begin withdrawing all US troops this year is not being fulfilled -- little of this is being reported in the mainstream media. Nor is the plight of over 1000 men and women facing execution.

Iraq has one of the highest rates of execution in the world. Amnesty International reports that at least 1000 men and women are now on death row. Many are facing the death penalty after convictions following confessions extracted by torture.

  Samar Saed Abdullah

Amnesty International has published a report on executions in Iraq (Thousand People Face the Death Penalty in Iraq, in which it calls for an international campaign to bring pressure on Iraq to end the use of capital punishment.

In the statement below the campaigning organisation Iraqi Women Solidarity for an Independent and Unified Iraq calls for a halt to all executions and the abolishing of the death penalty.

We women of WSIUI condemn the persisting practice of arbitrary arrests by the Iraqi security forces. We condemn their arrests of women in lieu of their men folk. These are practices, they inherited from the occupiers.

We are alarmed by credible media reports of the Green Zone government’s intentions of executing hundreds of Iraqi men and women.

According to Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, the current Iraqi judiciary is dysfunctional and incapable of delivering fair trials. Therefore we see the executions as nothing but judicial murder.

We are disgusted and horrified by Nouri Al Maliki’s approval of lynch mob styled public executions, this is a man professing to be the strong arm of the law.

Exacting the death penalty on suspects whose guilt was determined by confessions extracted under torture is an appalling crime. This is a mockery of the law, it would hardly serve security, stability and reconciliation.

We therefore call for:
• An immediate halt to all executions and abolishing the death penalty;
• The immediate release of all prisoners held without charge or trial whether by the occupiers or by the Iraqi government;
• Unfettered access for the Iraqi human rights lawyers and international human rights organisations to all Iraqi jails;
An immediate launch of an independent public inquiry into human rights abuses in detention and into disappearances after arrests.

Soft language and bombastic slogans regarding the “new democratic Iraq”, fail to disguise the miserable existence of the majority of Iraqis under the occupation. Iraqis are living on the poverty line, without the most essential of services, without stability and security and at the mercy of organised criminals and corrupt security forces, corrupt or apathetic government officials. Now, the sovereignty lacking Iraqi government intends to commit judicial murder.

We call on all international and human rights bodies to speak out and put the pressure on the Iraqi government to impose an immediate moratorium on all executions.

Write to the following, calling for an immediate halt to executions and the abolishing of the death penalty in Iraq:

Also send copies to the representatives of the Government of Iraq and Kurdistan Regional Government in your country.