Iraq PM orders 'immediate' execution of death row jihadists

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has ordered the immediate execution of hundreds of convicted jihadists on death row, in swift retaliation for the ISIS's execution of eight captives.


Mr Abadi, who has faced charges of failing to respond in force to IS, ordered "the immediate punishment of terrorists condemned to death whose sentences have passed the decisive stage", his office said, referring to convicts whose appeals have been exhausted.

No date was announced for the start of any mass hangings.

More than 300 people, including around 100 foreign women, have been condemned to death in Iraq and hundreds of others to life imprisonment for membership of Islamic State, a judicial source said in April.

Most of the convicted women are Turkish or from former Soviet republics, while a Russian man and a Belgian national are also on death row.
 (rte)
 29/6/18