Iraq hangs three convicted of terrorism offences in show of strength after ISIS attack

Police forces stand guard as Iraqis protest at the site of a suicide bomb attack at a popular market in Baghdad, Iraq, on January 21, 2021. EPA

Three Iraqis convicted of terrorism offences were hanged on Monday, a security source said.

They were executed days after a deadly double suicide attack in a crowded marketplace in Baghdad killed at least 32 people.

The reported hangings came after rights groups said Iraq may authorise a spree of such executions in a show of strength after the bombings on Thursday, which were claimed by ISIS.

“Three people convicted under Article 4 of the antiterror law were executed on Monday at the Nasiriyah central prison,” the security source said.

On Sunday, an official from Iraq’s presidency said more than 340 execution orders “for terrorism or criminal acts” were ready to be carried out.

“We are continuing to sign off on more,” the official said.

Another official from Iraq’s presidency said on Monday that all the orders were signed after 2014, most of them under ex-president Fuad Masum and at a time when ISIS occupied a third of the country.

The attack on Thursday was a jolting reminder of the persistent threat posed by ISIS, despite the government declaring victory over the militants in late 2017.

A 2005 law carries the death penalty for anyone convicted of “terrorism”, which can include membership of an extremist group even if they are not convicted of any specific acts.

Rights groups said the death penalty was being used for political reasons.

“Leaders resort to announcements of mass executions simply to signal to the public that they’re taking ... [these issues] seriously,” Belkis Wille, senior crisis and conflict researcher at Human Rights Watch, said on Sunday.

“The death penalty is used as a political tool more than anything else.”

Since Baghdad declared victory over ISIS, Iraqi courts have sentenced hundreds to death for crimes perpetrated during the extremists’ seizure in 2014 of large parts of the country and their brutal three-year hold over cities including Mosul.

Only a small proportion of the sentences have been carried out, because they must be approved by the president.

Barham Salih, who has held the post since 2018, is known to be personally against capital punishment, and has resisted signing execution orders in the past.

Some Iraqis took to social media to demand tougher action from Mr Saleh after Thursday’s attack, accusing him of “not carrying out the sentences” and risking a prison break.

A protest is planned to take place on Tuesday in Nasiriyah, demanding that extremists be executed in revenge for last week’s double suicide attack in the capital.

Despite Mr Salih’s moderating influence, in 2019 Iraq carried out the fourth highest number of executions among nations worldwide, after China, Iran and Saudi Arabia, according to Amnesty International.

Judicial sources said at least 30 executions occurred in 2020.

They include 21 men convicted of terrorism offences and executed at Nasiriyah prison in November.

The move sparked condemnations from the UN, which described the news as “deeply troubling” and called on Iraq to halt any planned executions.

Rights groups accuse the country’s justice system of corruption, carrying out rushed trials on circumstantial evidence and failing to allow the accused a proper defence.

UN Human Rights Commissioner Michelle Bachelet said late last year that given such gaps in Iraq’s legal system, imposing capital punishment “may amount to an arbitrary deprivation of life by the state”.