Iraqi court sentences 27 IS members to death for Speicher massacre

BAGHDAD, Iraq (Kurdistan 24) – An Iraqi court on Tuesday handed death sentences to 27 Islamic State (IS) members for their role in the murder of 1,700 prisoners in 2014.

Last year, Iraq approved the death sentences of 36 IS extremists who killed 1,700 Iraqi soldiers based at the US base of Camp Speicher, near the central city of Tikrit.

A statement by Supreme Judicial Council spokesman Abdul Sattar Berqdar confirmed the additional death sentences handed to the extremists.

“The Iraqi Central Criminal Court (ICC) has sentenced 27 people convicted of involvement in the Speicher crime,” Berqdar said.

The spokesman added that “the decision was based on the provisions of Article IV of the anti-terrorism law.”

Berqdar noted the criminal court had released another 25 suspects for “lack of evidence against them.”

During their rise in 2014, the militant group stormed the camp and tricked the prisoners into thinking they would be reunited with their families.

The Iraqi troops were rounded up and taken to a riverbank where they were lined up and shot dead from close range before being buried in mass graves.

For nearly 10 months, the fate of the soldiers was unknown until the graves were discovered in the area.

Fuad Masum, the President of Iraq, approved the executions after footage of the massacre emerged on social media networks.

Human rights activists at the time criticized the decision to enforce the death penalty, claiming the defendants were not given proper legal representation.

Meanwhile, Amnesty International on Monday condemned the mass executions, arguing some of the confessions had been extracted under threat and torture.

Editing by Ava Homa