NASIRIYAH: Iraqi authorities on Monday executed by hanging 11 people convicted of “terrorism”, security and health sources said, the second such group put to death since late April.

A security official said that the executions took place at Al-Hut prison in the southern city of Nasiriyah in Dhi Qar province, where 11 other people likewise convicted of “terrorism” were executed last month.

Under Iraqi law, terrorism and murder offences are punishable by death, and execution decrees must be signed by the president. The execution on April 22 of 11 people convicted of “terrorism” sparked concern among rights groups, with Amnesty International condemning an “alarming lack of transparency”.

Al-Hut is a notorious prison in Nasiriyah whose Arabic name means “the whale”, because Iraqis believe that those jailed there never walk out alive. The security official said the 11 executed on Monday had been convicted in line with Article 4 of Iraq’s anti-terrorism law.

A health official in Dhi Qar said his department received 11 bodies of men to be handed over to their next of kin, and that all of them were Iraqi nationals.

But the security official and the health official were unable to say on what specific charges the 11 had been executed.

It was also not clear if they had been convicted — like the previous group last month — on the basis of their affiliation to the militant Islamic State group or Al Qaeda.

Iraqi courts have handed down hundreds of death and life sentences in recent years for people convicted of membership in a “terrorist group”, an offence that carries the death penalty regardless of whether the defendant had been an active fighter.

Iraq has been criticised for trials denounced by rights groups as hasty, with confessions sometimes said to have been obtained under torture.

In late January, UN experts looking into capital punishment in Iraq expressed their “deep concern at reports that Iraq has begun mass executions in its prison system”.

The independent experts, who are appointed by the UN Human Rights Council but do not speak on its behalf, mentioned in their statement executions carried out late last year in Al Hut prison.

Published in Dawn, May 7th, 2024