Iraq holding 19,000 on ISIL and terrorism allegations

▶ Concerns raised as some death sentences were passed after 30 minutes in court

Iraq has detained or imprisoned at least 19,000 people accused of connections to ISIL or suspected of other terrorism-related offences, and sentenced more than 3,000 of them to death, according to Associated Press analysis.

The mass incarceration and speed of guilty verdicts raised concerns of miscarriages of justice and worries that jailed militants are recruiting to build new extremist networks.

The AP figure is based partially on an analysis of a spreadsheet listing 27,849 people imprisoned in Iraq as of late January. Thousands more are believed to be held by other bodies, including the federal police, military intelligence and Kurdish forces. Exact figures are not available.

AP determined that 8,861 of the prisoners listed in the spreadsheet were convicted of terrorism-related charges since the beginning of 2013, arrests likely to be linked to ISIL, according to an intelligence figure in Baghdad.

Another 11,000 people are detained by the interior ministry, undergoing interrogation or awaiting trial, another official said.

“There’s been great overcrowding ... Iraq needs a large number of investigators and judges to resolve this issue,” Fadhel Al Gharwari, a member of Iraq’s parliament-appointed human rights commission, said.

He said many legal proceedings were delayed because Iraq lacks the resources to respond to the spike in incarcerations.

Large numbers of Iraqis were detained after the 2003 US-led invasion, when the American and Iraqi governments battled Sunni militants, including Al Qaeda, and Shiite militias.

In 2007, at the height of the fighting, the US military held 25,000. The spreadsheet showed that about 6,000 people arrested on terrorism charges before 2013 are still serving those sentences.

Human Rights Watch warned in November that the broad use of terrorism laws meant those with minimal connections to ISIL are caught up in prosecutions alongside those behind the worst abuses. The group estimated a similar number of detainees and prisoners – about 20,000 in all.

“Based on all my meetings with senior government officials, I get the sense that no one – perhaps not even the prime minster himself – knows the full number of detainees,” said Belkis Wille, HRW’s senior Iraq researcher.

Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi, who is running to retain his position in May’s national elections, has repeatedly called for those guilty of terrorism charges to face speedy capital punishment.

The spreadsheet showed that 3,130 prisoners have been sentenced to death on terrorism charges since 2013.

Since 2014, about 250 executions of convicted ISIL members have been carried out, according to the Baghdad-based intelligence official. About 100 of those took place last year, a sign of the accelerating pace of hangings.

The United Nations has warned that fast-tracking executions puts innocent people at greater risk of being convicted and executed, “resulting in gross, irreversible miscarriages of justice”.

Throughout the fighting since 2013, Iraq has pushed thousands of ISIL suspects through trials in counter-terrorism courts. Trials often took no longer than 30 minutes.

The vast majority were convicted under the terrorism law, which has been criticised as overly broad.

Saad Al Hadithi, a government spokesman, said: “The government is intent that every criminal and terrorist receive just punishment.”

I get the sense that no one – perhaps not even the prime minster himself – knows the full number of detainees

BELKIS WILLE

Human Rights Watch Iraq