Iraq Hangings 'Obscene', Says United Nations - Yahoo News UK

The United Nations has condemned the "obscene" execution of 42 people in Iraq this week, saying the country's justice system is too flawed to use the death penalty.

Iraq's justice ministry claimed those hanged on Wednesday and Thursday had been convicted of terrorism charges.

But Rupert Colville, the UN human rights spokesman, said the country was not in a position to carry out executions.

"The justice system in Iraq is too seriously flawed to warrant even a limited application of the death penalty, let alone dozens of executions at a time," said Mr Colville.

"Large-scale executions of the sort that have been carried out on a number of occasions over the past two years in Iraq are not only obscene and inhuman, they are most probably in contravention of international law."

Iraq also executed 23 people during two days in September, 20 of them convicted on "terrorism" charges, with Justice Minister Hassan al Shammari claiming their actions had led to civilian deaths.

The UN spokesman did not go into specific cases but said concerns remained over the use of torture to extract confessions, as well as flawed court hearings.

It now wants Iraq to stop the executions and commute the sentences of the hundreds of other people believed to be on death row.

The number of people being executed in Iraq has risen from 18 in 2010 to 67 in 2011, 123 in 2012 and 140 so far this year, Mr Colville said.

At least 5,740 civilians have been killed in violence in Iraq from January to September this year, according to UN figures.

It represents the worst violence in the country since 2008, when the country was emerging from civil war.

Sectarian attacks and suicide bombings by al Qaeda Sunni Islamists have become a regular occurrence.

In one attack last week, bombers drove a truck packed with explosive into a school playground , killing 12 students and their headmaster.

The UN human rights spokesman added: "In our view, the claim that using the death penalty can help deter terrorism is clearly exposed as a fallacy, given the soaring casualty rate in Iraq, which has occurred over roughly the same period as the dramatic and shocking increase in the use of the death penalty."