IRAQ EXECUTES 13 MEN FOLLOWING UNFAIR TRIALS MARRED BY TORTURE ALLEGATIONS

September 22, 2013: 13 men were executed in Baghdad, bringing the total number of executions in Iraq so far this year to at least 73. Amnesty International is able to confirm the names of nine of the men, who were executed following death sentences imposed after unfair trials and based on “confessions” allegedly extracted under torture. The nine men were among a group of 11 sentenced to death by the First Branch of Anbar Criminal Court on 8 August 2010 after it convicted them under the draconian 2005 Anti-Terrorism Law. The remaining two are reportedly still on death row. 
During the trial, several of the defendants alleged that interrogators had tortured them while they were detained incommunicado at the Directorates of Counter-Terrorism in Haditha and Hit. They said they were beaten, subjected to electric shocks and suspended by their arms until they agreed to “confess”. Some of the defendants reportedly showed the court marks on their bodies that they said were caused by torture and submitted evidence from medical examinations in support of their allegations.
The Court of Cassation upheld their death sentences in 2011.  (Sources: amnesty.org, 25/09/2013)