Even the United Nations Can’t Deny Iraq’s ‘Anti-Terrorism Trials’ Are Nonsense

Iraq executes 11 convicted of ‘terrorism’
Iraq executes 11 convicted of ‘terrorism’

It isn’t often that the United Nations brings substantive and legitimate issues to the surface, but today they have. According to Reuters, The United Nations has raised “serious concerns” about the “trials of hundreds of alleged Islamic State members in Iraq.” Unsure as to how world leaders ever gave any legitimacy to Iraq’s “anti-terrorism law,” they are now coming to realize the farce.

Advertisement

Reuters reports that “Iraq has processed thousands of cases under its anti-terrorism law – including of detainees from outside the Middle East transferred from neighboring Syria – in the aftermath of a 2014-17 war against Islamic State militants.”  The supposed Islamic State militants have raised a red flag so high, even the United Nations couldn’t avoid it.

A joint report by the United Nations Human Rights Office in Iraq (UNAMI) and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) explains the concerns. Covering “794 trials carried out between May 1, 2018 and Oct. 31, 2019” the report “raises serious concerns about unfair trials placing defendants at a serious disadvantage” stated OHCHR spokesman Jeremy Laurence at a news briefing in Geneva.

109 cases were sentenced to death, and defendants or defense lawyers have “alleged torture or ill-treatment during interrogation in 260 hearings…including of women and children.”

Laurence added that “28 cases in the U.N. report involved foreign defendants from 11 different countries.” The real problem? That these so called ‘ISIS’ members were being tried for frivolous reasons resulting in no benefit to bettering Iraq or ending terrorism. According to the report, some of the tried cases were not terrorists, but rather, only individuals who “had provided basic support services, such as selling vegetables or preparing meals for members of the ultra-hardline jihadist group.”

Putting the pathetic fact that The United Nations is surprised by Iraq’s actions aside, here are a few examples of sentenced ‘Islamic State members’ from the report. A 14-year-old boy was sentenced to 15 years in prison “for admitting that he acted as a human shield, along with other family members, to protect fighters from an air strike.” Another case involved a pharmacist who was given a life sentence for “providing wounded Islamic State members with medical services.”

Advertisement

109 cases were sentenced to death, and defendants or defense lawyers have “alleged torture or ill-treatment during interrogation in 260 hearings…including of women and children.” The United Nations have determined in the report that “prosecutions under the anti-terrorism legal framework…focused on ‘membership’ of a terrorist organization without sufficiently distinguishing between those who participated in serious crimes and those who joined 9Islamic State) out of perceived necessities of survival or under coercion.”

Previous Story

Biden Grabs Voter By The Jacket, Pokes Him in the Chest

Next Story

Don Lemon Re-Elects The President