Iraq sentences over thirty convicts involved in terrorism to death: Ministry
Representational photo.
In a brief statement on Thursday, the Justice Ministry said death sentences have been carried out against 38 convicts involved in terrorism, after the decisions were being ratified by the presidency.
The statement did not refer to nationalities of the convicts or the prison, where the sentences were carried out. However, it’s believed that the prison of Nassiriyah, capital of Dhi Qar province, as the Minister Haidar al-Zamili arrived there in the morning. The convicts are likely to be members of al-Qaeda and Islamic State.
In related news, a security source told Alghad Press that “the ministry was supposed to carry out the sentence against 47 terrorists, who carried out the Speicher massacre in 2014.”
However, he added that “after conducting carrying out the sentences, the ministry and supervising authorities, ordered returning nine convicts back to the prison in mysterious circumstances that have not been revealed yet.”
In September, the ministry announced that 42 convicts were sentenced to death. In July 2016, The Iraqi Court of Discrimination, sentenced 40 convicts to death over involvement in crime by IS and other collaborators killing 1700 persons in Speicher Camp in Tikrit in 2014.
12 convicts were sentenced to death in June and 22 others in May.
Violence in the country has surged further with the emergence of Islamic State Sunni extremist militants who proclaimed an “Islamic Caliphate” in Iraq and Syria in 2014.
A total of 117 Iraqi civilians were killed and another 264 injured, excluding police, in acts of terrorism, violence and armed conflict in Iraq in November, according to casualty figures recorded by the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI).
Baghdad was the worst affected Governorate, with 201 civilian casualties (51 killed, 150 injured). Salahaddin Governorate followed, with 24 killed and 60 injured, and Kirkuk had 12 killed and 28 injured.