ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A court in Baghdad on Tuesday sentenced eight people to death for attempting to organize the Islamic State (ISIS) in prison. The eight were being held in three different prisons and had been in contact with ISIS prisoners in order to “restructure the organization and plan a prison escape to carry out an organized terrorist project,” according to a statement from the Iraqi judiciary. They confessed to receiving orders from ISIS, the statement added, and were sentenced in accordance with the 2005 anti-terrorism law, which stipulates that anyone who participates in committing a “terrorist act,” as defined by the law, shall be sentenced to death. Since the rise of ISIS in 2014, thousands of people have been detained across Iraq for suspected links to terrorist groups, including ISIS, while hundreds have been executed. Amnesty International in March reported that at least 20 death sentences have been handed down since Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani assumed office in October. At least 17 people sentenced to death for terror charges in Iraq were executed in 2021, reported AFP. Amnesty recorded 45 executions in 2019, down from 100 the year before. The United Nations has criticized Iraq’s trials of ISIS suspects, saying proceedings have not met fair trial standards and raising concerns about allegations of torture.
