08.2007 - Source: UN High Commissioner for Refugees

Criminal Law in Iraq ("UNHCR's Eligibility Guidelines for Assessing the International Protection Needs of Iraqi Asylum-seekers") [ID 22464]

"The two main sources of criminal law are the Law on Criminal Proceedings (Law No. 23 of 1971)58 – which details the procedures to be followed for the investigation of offences, the collection of evidence, trials and appeals – and the Penal Code (Law No. 111 of 1969),59 which lists offences and applicable sentences. In addition, a number of laws and orders of the Revolutionary Command Council (RCC)60 also exist. The Penal laws of the former Iraqi regime remain in effect, though they exist in slightly different versions in the three Northern Governorates which introduced a number of changes to the Iraqi Penal Code and the Law on Criminal Proceedings after obtaining de facto autonomy in 1991.
The CPA undertook a review of the Penal Code and the Law on Criminal Proceedings in order to assess their compatibility with international human rights standards. CPA Memorandum No. 3 amended the Law on Criminal Proceedings, introducing new procedural rights such as the right to be silent, the right to legal counsel, the right against self-incrimination, the right to be informed of these rights and the exclusion of evidence obtained by torture. By Order No. 7, the CPA amended the Iraqi Penal Code, repealing a number of provisions introduced by the Ba’athist regime that listed acts detrimental to the political goals of the state as crimes, and suspended the death penalty. However, Order No. 3 of 2004 of the Interim Iraqi Government (IIG), passed on 8 August 2004, reintroduced the death penalty and provides for capital punishment for certain crimes affecting internal state security, public safety, attacks on means of transportation, premeditated murder, drug trafficking, and abduction. The first executions under the amended law were carried out on 1 September 2005, when three people were put to death. Since then, the death penalty has been pronounced on a regular basis by Iraqi Courts, in particular the Central Criminal Court of Iraq (CCCI). Concerns have been raised by the UN and human rights organizations about the high number of death sentences and actual executions. In addition, following a trial by the Iraqi High Tribunal, set up to try the most senior members of the former regime, former President Saddam Hussein and other exsenior officials were executed. On 2 September 2006, the Kurdistan National Assembly repealed the CPA’s decision to suspend the death penalty, and on 21 September 2006, 11 alleged members of the insurgency group Ansar Al-Islam were hanged in Erbil. [Sec.II/B/4/pp.32-34]"

Document(s): Open document

13.01.2005 - Source: Human Rights Watch

Annual report on human rights situation in 2004 ("World report 2005") [#28234],  [ID 9989]

Information regarding the Criminal Justice System

"Following the fall of the Saddam Hussein government, Iraq’s criminal courts began functioning again around June 2003, but have had to rely on an outdated and deeply flawed legal framework pending comprehensive reform of Iraq’s judicial system and criminal laws.

Human Rights Watch observed numerous trials and investigative hearings during 2003 and 2004 involving suspects charged with various offenses under the Penal Code of 1969 before the ordinary criminal courts in Baghdad as well as the Central Criminal Court of Iraq (CCCI). The latter court was set up in July 2003 under CPA authority to hear cases involving serious felonies such as terrorism, organized crime, governmental corruption, acts intended to destabilize democratic institutions or processes, and violence based on race, nationality, ethnicity, or religion. Defendants brought before the CCCI include those charged with attacks against U.S.-led coalition forces and those who currently remain in MNF-I custody. The court also has jurisdiction over future cases involving suspects arrested and charged in accordance with July 3, 2004 national security order described above.

In the vast majority of cases observed by Human Rights Watch, defendants had been detained without judicial warrants and were brought before the criminal courts without having had prior access to defense counsel. Many of them had been held for weeks or months in pre-trial detention, and in some cases had been tortured or ill-treated to extract confessions from them. Where defendants were unable or unwilling to engage lawyers to act on their behalf, the courts appointed lawyers for them. However, such lawyers did not have prior access to the defendants nor to the evidence against them, and in some cases, lawyers were not present at investigative hearings. Trials before the criminal courts were summary, lasting less than thirty minutes in the majority of cases."

Document(s): Open document

23.07.2003 - Source: Amnesty International

Report highlighting continuing concerns in Baghdad (applicable international law, domestic law, use of force, arrest and detention, access to judges and lawyers) ("Memorandum on concerns relating to law and order") [#14588],  [ID 9991]

Document(s): Open document