Iraq Executing More People Than It Has For Almost A Decade, Says Amnesty Report
Iraq is executing more people than it has done for almost a decade. The country now has the third highest number of executions in the world, according to a report to be published this week.
The country, which saw the biggest rise in confirmed killings in just twelve months of anywhere else in the globe, executed at least 129 people last year, according to a global report by Amnesty International. This is almost double the number recorded in 2011 and the highest figure in the last eight years. So far, 16 people have been executed since January, according to the human rights organisation, with four being put to death in the last week alone.
Amnesty International’s UK director Kate Allen told The Independent on Sunday: “The global trend on the death penalty is toward abolition or at least a decrease in its use, but Iraq is bucking that trend in a disturbing way. The staggering scale of executions we’re seeing in Iraq has taken us back to the bad old days of large-scale executions under Saddam [Hussein].”
Other countries that saw an increase in executions in the last year include India, Japan, Pakistan and Gambia, which carried out the first execution in almost three decades. Most executions in Iraq were carried out for terrorism-related offences or murder. Many of the cases which ended in a sentence of death “failed to meet international standards for fair trials, including the use of ‘confessions’ obtained under torture and other ill-treatment,” said the report.
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http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/iraq-executing-more-people-than-it-has-for-almost-a-decade-says-amnesty-report-8563177.html
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