{"id":44540,"date":"2021-01-26T05:26:17","date_gmt":"2021-01-26T05:26:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=44540"},"modified":"2021-01-26T05:26:17","modified_gmt":"2021-01-26T05:26:17","slug":"jordan-demands-israel-end-al-aqsa-provocations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=44540","title":{"rendered":"Jordan demands Israel end Al-Aqsa \u2018provocations\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\nNASIRIYAH: Three Iraqis convicted of \u201cterrorism\u201d were hanged on Monday, a security source said, days after a deadly double suicide attack in a crowded Baghdad marketplace killed over 30 people.
The reported hangings came after rights groups warned Iraq may authorize a spree of such executions in a show of strength following the bombings on Thursday, which were claimed by the Daesh group.
\u201cThree people convicted under Article 4 of the anti-terror law were executed on Monday at the Nasiriyah central prison,\u201d the security source told AFP, on condition of anonymity.
On Sunday, an official from Iraq\u2019s presidency told AFP more than 340 execution orders \u201cfor terrorism or criminal acts\u201d were ready to be carried out.
\u201cWe are continuing to sign off on more,\u201d that official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Another official from Iraq\u2019s presidency said Monday that all the orders were signed after 2014, most of them under ex-president Fuad Massum and at a time when IS occupied a third of the country.
Thursday\u2019s attack, which killed at least 32 people, was a jolting reminder of the persistent threat posed by IS, despite the government declaring victory over the jihadists in late 2017.
A 2005 law carries the death penalty for anyone convicted of \u201cterrorism,\u201d which can include membership of an extremist group even if they are not convicted of any specific acts.
Rights groups have warned that executions were being used for political reasons.
\u201cLeaders resort to announcements of mass executions simply to signal to the public that they\u2019re taking… (these issues) seriously,\u201d said Belkis Wille, senior crisis and conflict researcher at Human Rights Watch.
\u201cThe death penalty is used as a political tool more than anything else,\u201d she told AFP on Sunday.
Since Baghdad officially declared victory over IS, Iraqi courts have sentenced hundreds to death for crimes perpetrated during the jihadists\u2019 2014 seizure of swathes of the country and their brutal three-year hold over cities including Mosul.
Only a small proportion of the sentences have been carried out, as they must be approved by the president.
Barham Saleh, who has held the post since 2018, is known to be personally against capital punishment, and has resisted signing execution orders in the past.
Some Iraqis took to social media to demand tougher action from Saleh after Thursday\u2019s attack, accusing him of \u201cnot carrying out the sentences\u201d and risking a prison break.
A protest is planned to take place on Tuesday in Nasiriyah, demanding that jihadists be executed in revenge for last week\u2019s double suicide attack in the capital.
Despite Saleh\u2019s moderating influence, Iraq in 2019 carried out the fourth highest number of executions among nations worldwide, after China, Iran and Saudi Arabia, according to Amnesty International.
Judicial sources told AFP at least 30 executions took place in 2020.
They include 21 men convicted of \u201cterrorism\u201d and executed at Nasiriyah prison in November.
The move sparked condemnations from the United Nations, which described the news as \u201cdeeply troubling\u201d and called on Iraq to halt any further planned executions.
Rights groups accuse Iraq\u2019s justice system of corruption, carrying out rushed trials on circumstantial evidence and failing to allow the accused a proper defense.
UN Human Rights Commissioner Michelle Bachelet said late last year that given such gaps in Iraq\u2019s legal system, implementing capital punishment \u201cmay amount to an arbitrary deprivation of life by the State.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NASIRIYAH: Three Iraqis convicted of \u201cterrorism\u201d were hanged on Monday, a security source said, days after a deadly double suicide attack in a crowded Baghdad marketplace killed over 30 people.The reported hangings came after rights groups warned Iraq may authorize a spree of such executions in a show of strength following the bombings on Thursday,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spotlight_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=44540"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44540\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=44540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=44540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=44540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}