IRAQ. 13 INSURGENTS HANGED

Iraqi authorities hanged 13 insurgents, marking the first time militants had been executed in the country since Saddam Hussein was ousted, the government said.
The cabinet announcement listed the name of only one of those hanged, Shukair Farid, a former policeman in the northern city of Mosul, who allegedly confessed that he had worked with Syrian foreign fighters to enlist fellow Iraqis to kill police and civilians.
"The competent authorities have today carried out the death sentences of 13 terrorists," according to the statement. It said Farid had "confessed that foreigners recruited him to spread the fear through killings and abductions."
On the recent executions in Iraq, Hands Off Cain Secretary Sergio D’Elia declared: “News of the 13 executions, instead of being a solution of continuity, represents a step backwards which risks endagering Iraq’s civil and democratic future.
“It is necessary that the aboltionst states, members of the coalition engaged in Iraq for the construction of a state based on justice and liberty, tollerance and non violence, let their voices be heard. If we go by the principle of non inference in internal affairs, it would only be an aliby for a principle of justice that risks being vendictive and ruthless.
“Abolitionist states together with the United Nations, in cooperating judicially and in terms of policing with Iraqi authorities, have to clearly draw the line in non cooperation with regards the application of the death penalty,” concluded D’Elia.