WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Iraq executed 177 people in 2013, the highest number since the US-occupied administration suspended executions from 2003 until mid-2004, the release stated.
In 2014, the release noted, Iraq remained the fourth country worldwide in executions carried out, after China, Iran and Saudi Arabia.
“Iraq’s parliament should turn down a proposal to allow the justice minister, rather than the president, to ratify execution orders,” Human Rights Watch said on Monday.
“Iraq should combat violence by Islamic State insurgents with fair and transparent trials… not expedited executions.”
Iraq’s criminal justice system, the release explained, mandates the death penalty for vague and not necessarily lethal acts, such as “threats which aim to bring about fear among people.”
Iraq’s constitution also prohibits clemency or a pardon in terrorism cases, the released added, in violation of international human rights norms.
The government of Iraq should place an immediate stay on all pending death sentences, the release argued, or abolish the death penalty by ratifying the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
