Twenty-one people executed in Iraq in a single day

, Aug 28: Twenty-one people convicted of terror-related crime were executed in

on Monday morning, a justice ministry spokesperson said on Tuesday. Three of the executed were women, it is learnt.

Amnesty International said in June that cases of execution in Iraq were increasing alarmingly and at least 70 people had been executed at that point of time. The number was bigger than what it was in the entire year of 2011. Seventeen people were executed on Jan 31 while 14 people on Feb 7. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights N Pillay criticised the lack of transparent court proceedings and wanted the death penalty to stop immediately.

The people were executed despite an appeal from Pillay for a moratorium on the use of death penalty in Iraq. Pillay said that 21 people being executed in a single day was a terrifying incident, even if one believed that fair trials had been observed.

OneIndia News

(With agency inputs)