Iraq’s High Judicial Council, announced the decision in a statement.
“The terrorist was wearing Afghani clothes and carrying a weapon, and he also worked as an intelligence member within the terrorist organization to report on people,” read the statement.
The readout didn’t provide the nationality of the convict nor did it provide details of his arrest, his case, or identifying details such as name, age, or place of birth.
The man had participated in the battle of Zummar and had allegedly killed five ISF members and raped a Yezidi woman, according to the council.
“He was sentenced to death based on his honest and clear confession in front of the court and the statements of witnesses based on Article Four of Anti-Terror Law number 13 of the year 2005,” the statement added.
Iraq’s courts heavily depend on confessions as definitive evidence against alleged ISIS members. Human rights organizations including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have condemned Iraq’s fast-track courts, claiming they fail to exercise due process and extract forced confessions.
Iraq has also offered to put on trial foreign members of ISIS whose home countries don’t want to take back due to lack of evidence or perceived security threats.
According to Issue 43 of May 2019 of al-Qadha, the official gazette of the judicial council, Iraqi courts have undertaken measures against 810 "terrorists.”
The court undertook many of these measures starting with former Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi last year prior to the provincial election and has continued under new premier Adil Abdul-Mahdi. Of the convicted, 514 have been slapped with different sentences, while the cases of 202 are still under investigation.
The court trials of 44 individuals are ongoing, while 11 have been released due to lack of evidence, the gazette adds.
Iraq is among the world’s top five executioners, according to a recent Amnesty report.
Activists have argued the hasty trials allow evidence of ISIS crimes to be lost, thus depriving the victims of justice and closure.
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