Iraq: Surging Unlawful Executions

(Beirut) - The Iraqi government dramatically increased the scale and pace of unlawful executions in 2024, Human Rights Watch said today. Cases Human Rights Watch documented show that the authorities are carrying out these executions without prior notice to lawyers or family members and despite credible allegations of torture and violations of the right to a fair trial. 

In January, Human Rights Watch reported that at least 150 prisoners at the Iraqi Nasiriyah Central Prison were facing imminent execution without warning. Authorities executed 13 men in Nasiriyah Central Prison on December 25, 2023, the first mass execution since 21 men were executed on November 16, 2020. About 8,000 people are believed to be on death row. 

"Iraqi authorities are carrying out state-sanctioned murder on a disturbing scale," said Lama Fakih, Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. "Signing off on these unlawful executions will leave President Abdul Latif Rashid's legacy stained with blood."

Given the Iraqi judicial system's well-established record of due process violations, amounting to arbitrary deprivation of the right to life, Iraq should urgently halt all pending executions and declare a moratorium with a view to abolishing the death penalty.

Human Rights Watch interviewed five family members of nine men sentenced to death, three of whom were executed in the last three months; a lawyer representing dozens of people on death row who provided details about four cases; and two activists. Human Rights Watch sent a letter to the Ministry of Justice on October 14 detailing these allegations and requesting information on prison conditions, executions, and access to Nasiriyah Central Prison but has received no response.

The Iraqi government does not publish official statistics on executions and would not provide them despite multiple requests. According to AFAD, an independent group that monitors human rights abuses in Iraq, authorities executed 50 men in September alone. In June, AFAD denounced what it called a surge in "secret executions," stating it had documented 63 executions in the previous weeks that had not been publicly announced. 

In July, the Ministry of Justice denied allegations that it was carrying out secret executions, warning it would take legal action against any websites that publish "misleading news of this sort." In October, President Rashid denied allegations circulating on social media that he had ratified death sentences en masse. 

Cases Human Rights Watch documented indicate that Iraqi authorities have increasingly threatened death row inmates and nongovernmental groups for speaking out about conditions in the Nasiriyah Central Prison. Since April, five men who had submitted anonymous complaints through a foreign lawyer to the United Nations were executed. 

Two of them had official reports from a medical committee under the Supreme Judicial Council of Iraq attesting that they had been tortured and were able to identify the officers who tortured them. Both men requested the prosecutor to open an investigation into the security personnel who they said tortured them, but their lawyer said an investigation was never opened. Both men also requested retrials, but authorities denied their requests due to the absence of a case file. These case files were destroyed in June 2014 when ISIS burned the courthouse holding them, their lawyer said.

In his last communication with his lawyer in March 2024, one of those men said prison officials had discovered that he was transmitting information outside the prison, and expressed fear of retaliation, his lawyer told Human Rights Watch. In early April, the man was put in isolation, incommunicado, until authorities informed his family and lawyer in July that he had been executed.

None of those interviewed said they had prior notice of executions, consistent with previous allegations. In some of the lawyers' cases, prison officials called families to collect the bodies months after their execution.

One family member said the cause of death on their relative's death certificate is "execution by hanging," but that there were no marks around the man's neck to indicate hanging when they washed the body before burial, raising suspicions about the nature of his death.

The family member also said that armed men from Iraqi state security forces, stationed outside the cemetery for weeks following the burial, harassed family members who visited the grave. The family member said they believed the reason for this was to prevent the family from exhuming the body for an independent autopsy. No autopsy record was provided to them.

The Ministry of Justice did not respond to a Human Rights Watch request about the allegation. 

In another case, no cause of death was listed on the death certificate, reviewed by Human Rights Watch. 

One person said that security forces prevented the family from holding funeral ceremonies and stationed forces by the grave. "The last time I visited him [in prison], I noticed his nails were missing, his teeth had fallen out, and there were marks on his feet and around his neck," she said.

Human Rights Watch has reviewed photos of three bodies released after executions that show visible signs of mistreatment or torture, including heavy bruising, broken bones, wounds, and emaciation. 

Executions appear to have been carried out despite credible allegations of torture and other fair trial and due process violations. If the defendant's fair trial guarantees have been violated, imposition of the death penalty is arbitrary and unlawful, Human Rights Watch said.

UN Special Rapporteurs have reported that Nasiriyah Central Prison conditions are inhumane, including a lack of health care and sanitation, prolonged solitary confinement, limited time outdoors, overcrowding, and poor quality food.

The rapporteurs said on June 27 that "the Government of Iraq's systematic executions of prisoners sentenced to death based on torture-tainted confessions, and pursuant to an ambiguous counterterrorism law, amount to arbitrary deprivation of life under international law and may amount to a crime against humanity."

Human Rights Watch has sent four letters to the Ministry of Justice since October 2023 requesting information on prison conditions, executions, ratifications of death sentences, and access to Nasiriyah Central Prison. On April 24 the ministry responded that it was unable to provide figures on the number of death sentences issued or ratified, or executions carried out per year since 2020. 

In March, a Human Rights Watch representative met with President Rashid, Justice Minister Khaled Shwani, and three members of the President's Advisory Council in Baghdad. President Rashid denied allegations of irregularities in death sentence ratification and outlined the steps his office has taken to ensure the rights of those facing the death penalty, reiterated in a response letter dated March 7. Minister Shwani denied allegations of ill-treatment, torture, and unlawful executions in Nasiriyah Central Prison, and promised to facilitate Human Rights Watch's access to Nasiriyah, Karkh, and Rusafa prisons. Officials did not respond to subsequent requests for access or follow-up messages. 

President Rashid should immediately stop ratifying death penalties, effectively establishing a moratorium on its use until Parliament passes a law abolishing the death penalty. Human Rights Watch opposes the death penalty in all circumstances because of its inherent cruelty and irreversibility.

In line with international legal standards and Iraqi criminal procedures, Iraq's judges should investigate all credible allegations of torture and the security forces responsible, and transfer detainees to different facilities to protect them from retaliation. Judicial authorities should investigate and determine who was responsible for any incidents of torture, punish those responsible, and compensate the victim.

"At this rate, Iraq is on track to become a world leader in unlawful executions," Fakih said. "The government should rather focus its efforts on making meaningful reforms to the Iraqi judiciary and prison system and abolish the death penalty once and for all." 

Source: Human Rights Watch