Iraqi court hands death sentence to four ISIS terorrist group members in Anbar

A criminal court in Iraq’s Anbar Province on Wednesday sentenced four Islamic State (IS) members to death for their involvement in attacks carried out by the group against the headquarters of the Iraqi army.

The Anbar Criminal Court issued death sentences against four IS members for their “participation in operations against Iraqi army headquarters and security forces in the areas of Fallujah and Ramadi,” the media center’s representative told the Supreme Judicial Council.

“The court issued its ruling in accordance with Article 4 of the anti-terrorism law,” the representative noted, adding that “the provisions are preliminary and subject to appeal.”

On Monday, the Central Criminal Court in Baghdad sentenced two defendants to death, one of whom “took part in the terrorist attack on the Iraqi Justice Ministry in 2013,” which killed at least 24 people, spokesperson for Iraq’s Higher Judicial Council, Abdul-Sattar al-Birqdar, said in a statement.

“The other suspect was a member of the so-called Islamic court of IS, who was also a member of the Mujahideen Army in 2007 before he pledged allegiance to the terrorist organization,” he added.

Over the past few months, the Iraqi government has stepped up the pace regarding trials of individuals accused of participating in IS activities.

Iraqi courts recently sentenced 212 people to death in Mosul and surrounding areas, most of them for membership to the extremist group.

International humanitarian organizations, including the United Nations, say efforts by the Iraqi authorities to speed up the implementation of death sentences could lead to the execution of innocent people.

The death penalty in Iraq was suspended on June 10, 2003, but was reinstated the following year.

Critics say the country’s flawed and confession-based criminal justice system in which torture is routinely used to extract confessions is incompatible with a sentence such as capital punishment.

Source: Kurdistan 24