Another 64 inmates on death row face imminent execution, the justice ministry said on Friday.
The government is under fire from citizens and religious leaders after eight people were executed by ISIS this week, the latest in a string of attacks by the militant group.
Six of the eight were civilians working for the Hashd al-Shaabi. They had appeared in an ISIS video in which militants demanded the release of Sunni women in Iraqi jails in exchange for the captives.
Iraq’s top Shiite cleric Ayatollah Ali as-Sistani joined public condemnation of the government’s decision not to take ISIS up on the deal. Officials should have considered appeals from the families and acted quickly to save the victims, Sistani said on Friday.
Under pressure, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi took a tough stance, demanding executions of convicted “terrorists” be sped up.
“Our security and military forces will take forceful revenge against these terrorist cells,” he told senior military officials and ministers, AFP reported. “We promise that we will kill or arrest those who committed this crime.”
Iraq is holding at least 19,000 people accused of ties to ISIS or other terror-related charges, Associated Press reported this spring after an investigation.
Rights organizations have criticized the trials of suspected ISIS militants, arguing the judicial process has been perfunctory and unfair.
“The recent ISIS killings were heinous, but for Iraq to respond with a batch execution of death row inmates reeks of revenge rather than justice,” senior Iraqi researcher for Human Rights Watch, Belkis Wille, said on Friday.
“These executions are particularly troubling given the flaws we documented at these ISIS trials. What Iraq needs today is justice based on fairness and individualized guilt,” she added.
The Shiite Hashd paramilitaries are on high alert in Karbala and Najaf – sites of important Shiite shrines, their command said on Friday.
AFP photographed increased police presence on Baghdad’s streets.
.png&w=3840&q=75)
