By IANS/EFE,
Baghdad: Iraqi authorities Thursday executed 11 people convicted in different terrorism cases, the country’s justice ministry announced in a communique.
With the 11 put to death Thursday, this brings to 37 the total number of convicts executed so far this week in Iraq.
On Tuesday, the ministry announced that 26 convicted terrorists had been executed, the first such group to be put to death in 2014.
The 37 convicts were all Iraqis and among them was Adel al Mashadani, well-known for “his sectarian crimes in Baghdad,” authorities said.
The new executions came despite the opposition of Iraqi and international human rights organisations, who criticised the application of the death penalty.
Justice Minister Hasan al Shamri recently responded to those criticisms, saying that the executions are “legitimate” and the result of definitive judicial rulings.
Iraq executed dozens of people sentenced for terrorism-related crimes last year under judicial procedures that “could be illegal”, according to the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.