Six Iraqis on Death Row Executed, Three for ‘Terrorism’

Members of the Iraqi police. (AFP file photo)
Members of the Iraqi police. (AFP file photo)
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Six Iraqis on Death Row Executed, Three for ‘Terrorism’

Members of the Iraqi police. (AFP file photo)
Members of the Iraqi police. (AFP file photo)

Six Iraqis sentenced to death, three for “terrorism”, were hanged Monday in a prison in southern Iraq, a medical source told AFP.

The source said the hangings took place in Nasiriyah prison, where death row prisoners are held.

Those not executed for “terrorism” were sentenced over “criminal cases”.

Rights group Amnesty International says it recorded more than 45 executions in Iraq last year, including many of people accused of belonging to the ISIS group.

Since Baghdad officially declared victory over ISIS in 2017, Iraqi courts have sentenced hundreds to death for crimes perpetrated by the extremists who had set up a so-called “caliphate” in territory seized in Iraq and Syria in 2014.

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

Barham Salih, who has held the post since 2018, is known to be personally against capital punishment.

According to an AFP tally, at least 14 people sentenced for “terrorism” have been executed in Iraq since the start of the year, all at the Nasiriyah prison.

Earlier this month, a man who murdered a senior Iraqi official in broad daylight was sentenced to death amid revulsion over the government’s failure to halt a wave of assassinations.

In January, an official from Iraq’s presidency told AFP more than 340 execution orders “for terrorism or criminal acts” were ready to be carried out.



Biden Says He Will Keep Pushing Gaza Ceasefire Efforts

 President Joe Biden speaks as other G20 leaders listen during the G20 Summit at the Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro, Monday, Nov. 18, 2024. (Eric Lee/The New York Times via AP, Pool)
President Joe Biden speaks as other G20 leaders listen during the G20 Summit at the Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro, Monday, Nov. 18, 2024. (Eric Lee/The New York Times via AP, Pool)
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Biden Says He Will Keep Pushing Gaza Ceasefire Efforts

 President Joe Biden speaks as other G20 leaders listen during the G20 Summit at the Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro, Monday, Nov. 18, 2024. (Eric Lee/The New York Times via AP, Pool)
President Joe Biden speaks as other G20 leaders listen during the G20 Summit at the Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro, Monday, Nov. 18, 2024. (Eric Lee/The New York Times via AP, Pool)

President Joe Biden told fellow global leaders at a Group of 20 summit Monday that his soon-to-end administration would keep pushing to bring an equitable end to Israel’s devastating war against Hamas in Gaza.

Seated between leaders of France and India at a long oval table at the summit site in Rio de Janeiro, Biden cited US efforts on hunger and poverty in his soon-to-end four years in office, saying he had put $160 billion into global development.

With fewer than three months left in his term, Biden also said his administration would keep pressing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government on its conduct of the war and the need to end it.

“Israel has a right to defend itself after the worse massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. But how it defends itself ... matters a great deal.”

“We’re going to keep pushing to accelerate a ceasefire deal that ensures Israel’s security and brings hostages home and ends the suffering of the Palestinian people and children,” he said.

Biden also said Hamas was still refusing a deal, adding, “I am asking everyone to increase the pressure on Hamas.”