IRAQ: 31 CONVICTS EXECUTED FOR SPEICHER'S MASSACRE

January 20, 2017: 31 persons were executed for their alleged role in Speicher's massacre in 2014, Iraqi Justice Ministry announced.
Local authorities confirmed to Amnesty International that they received on January 23 the 31 bodies in Samarrah, Salah al-Din governorate, which were then transferred to the city’s hospital for purposes of being collected by their families, who have commenced to do so.
The men, whose “confessions” were extracted under serious allegations of torture, were convicted following deeply flawed and speedy trials, over the killing of 1,700 military cadets at Speicher military camp near Tikrit in June 2014.
The armed group calling itself Islamic State (IS) claimed responsibility for those killings. 
“This is the second time in less than six months that the Iraqi authorities have carried out mass executions after unfair trials” said James Lynch, Head of the Death Penalty team at Amnesty International. (Sources: Amnesty International, Iraq TradeLink, 24/01/2017)