Middle East News
Amnesty International criticizes use of death penalty in Iraq
Sep 1, 2009, 15:04 GMT
London - At least 1,000 people are currently facing the death sentence in Iraq which has one of the highest rates of execution in the world, Amnesty International said in a report published Tuesday.
The report said 150 of the people under sentence of death had exhausted all legal remedies available and were therefore at serious risk of being hanged.
'Iraq now has one of the highest rates of execution in the world,' said the Amnesty report. It added that it had never been possible to ascertain the exact number of executions.
The present government in Baghdad had widened the use of the death penalty, citing the continuing high level of political violence as justification, Amnesty said.
But there was little transparency or information and some executions had been carried out in secret.
According to Amnesty, some 19 people, including one woman, were executed as recently as June 10, 2009. However, no information had been given to the media.
Many of the death sentences were handed down following court proceedings which did not meet international standards for fair trials, Amnesty said.
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