Iraqi MPs demand ratification of death sentences

The head of the ٍShia parliamentary bloc of the Iraqi National Alliance revealed on Thursday that 100 MPs from different parties have signed a petition demanding that State President Fuad Masum should ratify around 1,000 death sentences.

“The signatures were handed officially to the Speaker of the Parliament,” Hassan Salem told Anadolu. “The petition included a request to host the Iraqi president in the parliament at a time to be determined, to find out the true reasons behind the lack of his endorsement of the death sentences against those convicted by the judiciary.”

Paragraph 8, Article 70 of the Iraqi Constitution states that, “The President of the Republic shall assume the power to ratify death sentences issued by the competent courts.”

Salem added that President Masum may find the signature of his predecessor, Jalal Talabani, on a previous agreement with the European Union not to ratify the death sentences. This would be a good excuse for not approving them, he suggested, but taking this position would be “contrary to the Iraqi Constitution and the law.”

Talabani, who was president of Iraq for two consecutive terms from 2006 to 2014, refused to ratify death sentences in compliance with the EU agreement. Instead, he authorised his deputy, Khadr Alkhozai in June 2011 to sign and ratify the verdicts on his behalf. All death sentences from that date until 2014 were ratified but since Masum took office last July nobody has been executed for terrorism.

The UN Mission in Iraq (UNAMI) issued a statement last October in which it demanded that the Iraqi authorities should stop the executions. “Iraq must stop the widespread use of the death penalty,” said the UN body, “which is unfair and flawed, and only leads to igniting the sort of violence that is meant to be prevented by such a sentence.”

From January to August 2014 the Iraqi ministry of justice executed 60 people, whereas 177 were executed in 2013.