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• Under Iraqi law, terrorism and murder crimes are punishable by death, and execution decrees must be signed by the president
• A security source in Iraq’s southern Dhi Qar province told AFP that 11 “terrorists from the Daesh group” were executed by hanging in a prison in Nasiriyah.

NASIRIYAH, Iraq: Iraqi authorities this week executed at least 11 people convicted of “terrorism”, security and health sources said on Wednesday, with rights group Amnesty International condemning an “alarming lack of transparency”.

Under Iraqi law, terrorism and murder crimes are punishable by death, and execution decrees must be signed by the president.

A security source in Iraq’s southern Dhi Qar province told AFP that 11 “terrorists from the Daesh group” were executed by hanging in a prison in the city of Nasiriyah, “under the supervision of a team from the Ministry of Justice.”

A local medical source confirmed that the health department had received the bodies of eleven executed people.

They were hanged on Monday “under Article 4 of the Anti-Terrorism Law,” the source added, requesting anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue.

All 11 were from Salahaddin province and the bodies of seven had been returned to their families, the medical official said.

Iraqi courts in recent years have handed down hundreds of death sentences and life sentences to people convicted of membership of “a terrorist group,” a crime punishable by death regardless of whether the suspect had been an active combatant.

Iraq has been criticized for trials that rights groups say are rushed, with confessions sometimes extracted under torture.

Amnesty condemned the latest hangings in a statement on Wednesday for “overly broad and vague accusations of terrorism.”

It said a total of 13 men were executed on Monday, including 11 who were “convicted based on their links to the so-called Daesh armed group.”

The two others, arrested in 2008, “were convicted under the Criminal Code of terrorism-related offenses after a grossly unfair trial,” Amnesty said, citing their lawyer.

AFP