...an idea whose time has gone...
on Friday harshly criticised the mass-hanging of 38 men at a prison in southern Iraq this week, urging Baghdad to immediately halt all executions.
Iraq on Thursday hanged 38 jihadists belonging to 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....
group or al-Qaeda for terrorism offences at a prison in the southern city of Nasiriyah, according to provincial authorities.
It was the largest number of executions in Iraq on a single day since September 25, when 42 people were put to death in the same prison.
"We are deeply shocked and appalled at the mass execution on Thursday," United Nations human rights
One man's rights are another man's existential threat.
office spokeswoman Liz Throssell told news hounds in Geneva.
The hangings, she warned, "once again raises huge concerns about the use of the death penalty
in the country".The UN had determined that all of the 38 executed prisoners were men and had been convicted for terrorism-related crimes, but could say nothing more about their identities, she said.
A prison source however told AFP that they were all Iraqis, but that one also held Swedish nationality.
The executions came after Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on Saturday declared victory against the Islamic State group after a three-year campaign by government forces backed by a US-led coalition to retake territory seized by the jihadists.