Elimination of political opponents

The authorities executed three people and sentenced six others to long prison terms allegedly for attacking and killing members of the ruling Baath party. They and many others were arrested following an attack on a branch of the party in Baghdad in which two senior members were killed - Hadi al-Muaid and Moussa Abedziboun. The executions and prison terms were handed down by a special court and following a summary trial. There are several special courts in Iraq run by the country´s diverse security services. Their rulings cannot be appealed and defendants are not allowed access to lawyers. (Sources: Amman, Iraq Press, 30/01/2002)
February 27, 2002: an Iraqi opposition group reported that two employees of the Basra-based Al-Shuaiba oil institution were executed at the beginning of February. The Higher Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq said in a statement that Iraqi president Saddam Hussein´s cousin, Ali Hassan Al-Majeed, received information saying the two employees were members of an opposition group. Al-Majeed ordered the execution of the two staff members on duty omission and negligence charges, and for their negative influence on other staff members. (Sources: Kuna, 27/02/2002)
April 15, 2002: an Iraqi opposition organization reported that new executions were carried out by the authorities after the visit to Iraq of UN rapporteur on human rights Andreas Mavrommatis in February and after his call to the regime to put an end to these executions and reduce the number of accusations which bring about this punishment. A statement by the Iraqi Communist Party´s Human Rights Office said that the authorities executed 17 people in March. The statement said that "in early March, the authorities executed five citizens from the village of Al-Wahhabi in Al-Najaf Governorate" on charges of clashing with police units and taking part with the villagers in the killing of a member of the ruling party and a policeman." According to the statement, the police arrested the five in December during a raid on the village of Al-Wahhabi while searching for draft evaders. The statement added that four inmates of the Abu-Ghurayb Prison near Baghdad were executed on 15 March. On 21 March eight citizens from Al-Muthanna Governorate were executed, the statement added. (Sources: Al-Sharq al-Awsat monitored by BBC, 16/04/2002)
August 12, 2002: Iraqi Communist Party newspaper Tariq al-Sha´b reported that on June 25, the Iraqi authorities handed over the bodies of three citizens, that they had executed earlier, to their families in Al-Hindiyah Administrative District and its environs. The victims were identified as: Karim Muhammad Al-Nashmi, aged 35, from Al-Dayiniyah district in Al-Hindiyah Administrative District; Aid Jasim Abd Ayub, from Al-Jadwal al-Gharbi Sub-Administrative District which belongs to Al-Hindiyah Administrative District; Ali Abbis Khashan, from Al-D´um on the touristic road of Rif Al-Hindiyah.It said that they were part of a bigger group of citizens executed for political reasons in the same period. It was not possible to know the number and the names of the other victims. It also reported that the regime´s authorities have forbidden the families of the victims to hold a mourning ceremony.Sources disclosed that the Iraqi authorities executed other citizens in June, for political reasons, as punishment for having led a hostile act or having opinions considered "hostile" according to the regime´s rules. On 23 June, five citizens were executed in Abu Ghraib prison. Three of them for political reasons. They were identified as: Jabbar Sadiq Ali, from Basra, born in 1962; Fadil Mahdi Jawad, from Al-Shatrah, born in 1971; Khalil Baqir Hashim, Baghdad, Al-Shu´lah District, born in 1973. The authorities did not hand over the bodies of the victims to their families. They buried them in an unknown place.A week earlier, in mid-June, the executioners of Abu Ghraib prison killed five other citizens, who were imprisoned for political reasons. Only two of them had been sentenced to death: Naji Hamid Zahid, from Baghdad, Al-Thawrah District, born in 1975 and Abd-al-Salam Hadi Jawad, from Basra, born in 1964.The three others, who were under detention but not yet sentenced, were identified as: Ghanim Ala Mahdi, from Al-Nasiriyah, born in 1962; Mahmud Hadi Nasif, from Baghdad, Al-Thawrah District, born in 1969; Faris Abbas Wadi, born in 1965. The authorities did not allow the families of the five victims bury them. They were transferred at night to Al-Sayd Ibrahim cemetery in Al-Jadiriyah District in Baghdad, accompanied by a patrol from the Security General Directory, and buried there in the darkness of the night. (Sources: Tariq al-Sha´b, Arbil, in Arabic, monitored by BBC, 12/08/02)