20th October, 2014
A new report has highlighted the "alarming rise" in the number of executions carried out in Iraq since the death penalty was restored in the country in 2005.
The document, released jointly by the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) and the Office for the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), shows that while only 11 executions were carried out in 2005, by 2009, the number has risen to 124. It dropped off in 2010 to just 18 (only in one year, 2008, was the figure zero), but climbed to 177 last year with, on one occasion, 34 people executed on a single day. There have been 60 executions in Iraq so far this year and, as of August, 1,724 people are on death row including those on appeal.
The report states that criminal investigations and judicial proceedings in death penalty cases "frequently fail to adhere to international and constitutional guarantees of due process and fair trial standards". It notes that in more than half of the trials involving the death penalty monitored by UNAMI, judges systematically ignored defendants’ claims they were tortured to induce a confession and that in almost all cases, defendants were convicted and sentenced to death based solely or substantially on the weight of disputed confession evidence or the testimony of secret informants. Most defendants in monitored cases were unrepresented and when the court appointed an lawyer, the report found no time was granted to prepare an adequate defence.
The report said the use of the death penalty in such circumstances "carries the risk of grievous and irreversible miscarriages of justice since innocent people may face execution for crimes they did not commit".
"Far from providing justice to the victims of acts of violence and terrorism and their families, miscarriages of justice merely compound the effects of the crime by potentially claiming the life of another innocent person and by undermining any real justice that the victims and families might have received," it said.
Both Nickolay Mladenov, Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General for Iraq, and Zeid Ra”ad Al Hussein, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, have expressed concern over the findings and called for the Iraqi Government to impose a moratorium on the use of the death penalty in moving towards its abolition.
– DAVID ADAMS
