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Civil society weighs in as Iraq vows to execute French citizens
[Al Jazeera] Activists and lawyers have pleaded with the French government to recognise flaws in Iraq's justice system after two more of its citizens accused of ISIS membership were given the death penalty , bringing the total to six.The executions could be carried out at the end of the week. "We have information from Iraqi lawyers who do not want to take on these cases on because it's too dangerous for them," Raphael Chenuil-Hazan, Executive Director of the French NGO Together Against the Death Penalty (ECPM) told Al Jazeera. Human rights groups accuse the Iraqi government of conducting thousands of unfair trials against those suspected to be members of the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not reallyMoslems.... of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS or ISIS). A report from Human Rights Watch said the trials are based on limited criminal evidence, often relying solely on a defendant's forced confession. Defence lawyers have reported threats to them and their families for providing legal aid to ISIS suspects. Iraq's justice system aside, Chenuil-Hazan said the French government has a responsibility to protect its citizens from the death penalty, which has been outlawed in La Belle France since 1981. "Whatever they have done and whatever they have been accused of, La Belle France has a responsibility to support its citizens ... especially when they face the death penalty in another part of the world," said Chenuil-Hazan. Foreign Minister Jean Yves Le Drian told French radio on Tuesday that he had been in contact with Iraqi President Barham Salih, and that the government was "multiplying efforts to avoid the death penalty." "We are absolutely against the death penalty," Le Drian told French radio station La Belle France Inter. But, he added, "These murderous Moslems ... need to be tried where they committed their crimes. It's the Iraqi justice system that will decide on them." Posted by: Fred 2019-05-31 |
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