 The first executions in Iraq since the ousting of Saddam Hussein will take place within days, Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari said on Tuesday -- in what could be an ominous sign for the jailed former dictator. âThe president (Jalal Talabani) has signed three death sentences and the next few days will see the first executions in Kut,â 175 kilometers (110 miles) south of Baghdad, Jaafari told reporters. Three members of the Al Qaeda-linked group Ansar Al Sunna were sentenced to death in May, a verdict later approved by the Supreme Council for Justice, the highest judicial authority in Iraq. Kurd Bayan Ahmad al-Jaf, a 30-year-old taxi driver, as well as two Sunni Arabs, Uday Dawud Al Dulaimi, a 25-year-old builder, and Taher Jassem Abbas, a 44-year-old butcher, were condemned to death after being convicted of killing and kidnapping policemen and raping Iraqi women. They were the first death sentences to be announced by Jaafariâs government since capital punishment was suspended by US authorities following the invasion of Iraq in March 2003.
Officials from the human rights group Amnesty International condemned the announcement on Tuesday, saying it was concerned that dozens of death sentences had been handed out in recent weeks. âWe condemned the passing of death sentences in Iraq before 2003, and we also condemn them now,â said Said Boumadouha, an Amnesty official in London who was part of the organisationâs last delegation to visit Iraq in early 2004.
| That's conviction, of a sort. |
| Of course, he wasn't murdered or raped, either... |
Tuesdayâs announcement could also set a precedent for sentencing during the high-profile trials of former regime figures, including Saddam for crimes against humanity, Boumadouha added. âIn those cases the charges are so serious and the evidence so clear that quite a few people from the old regime (in Iraq) will probably face the death sentence,â he said. Boumadouha said he was aware of at least 50 death sentences being passed in Iraq since the beginning of 2005, adding that Amnesty would be taking âurgent actionâ following Tuesdayâs announcement. All Amnesty members should write to Iraqi authorities urging that the sentences be commuted, Boumadouha said.
| We could always convert Abu Ghraib into a Turkish prison. |
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