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International organization accuses Iraqi courts of ignoring torture allegations
2019/09/24 23:52:30
A careful examination of the Iraqi Court of Cassation's decisions on terrorism-related cases appears to have shown that judges ignored allegations of torture or relied on unsupported confessions in nearly 20 cases in 18 months, Human Rights Watch said on Wednesday.
Some allegations of torture were substantiated through forensic examinations, some confessions were not supported by any other evidence, and appeared to have been extracted by force, including through torture.
In each of these cases, the trial courts took allegations of torture seriously, found them credible, assessed the evidence and released the defendants, Amnesty International said in a report today. These cases illustrate the gaps in the Iraqi criminal justice system that extend to the highest level. Under international law, courts should never rely on evidence obtained through torture.
The organization called on member states of the International Coalition to Defeat ISIS (also known as ISIS), which will meet on September 26, 2019 on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session in New York to discuss measures for accountability for ISIS crimes, to agree ISIS suspects should not be transferred from Syria to Iraq until the Iraqi judicial system is able to ensure that criminal trials comply with international fair trial standards and impose a moratorium on the death penalty.
"Our investigation into a large number of Iraqi Court of Cassation judgments found what could be recurrent cases of terrorism malpractice," the report quoted Amnesty International's acting director for Middle East Lama Faqih as saying. Idle? ".
Human Rights Watch said it reviewed the files of discrimination cases in 27 decisions between September 2018 and March 2019 by the Criminal Court of the Federal Court of Cassation. In 21 of the cases, the court overturned the decision to release the first instance court and ordered a retrial, and in two cases upheld the release, and in four cases upheld the conviction of the court but increased the sentences. Human Rights Watch was unable to confirm the verdicts of the cases following the retrial.
Of the 27 terrorism cases, 23 have been tried under Iraq's counterterrorism law, three under the penal code, and one under the Arms Law No. 51 of 2017. An independent Iraqi legal expert confirmed the authenticity of court documents.
The criminal courts in Iraq are divided into criminal courts for major crimes and misdemeanor courts. The Public Prosecution, the accused and the complainant shall have the right to appeal the judgment of release, conviction or judgment in the judgment of the Criminal Court. The Criminal Tribunal, which consists of a judge presiding over the Tribunal and at least four others, hear appeals at the Federal Court of Cassation in Baghdad. The Criminal Court automatically reviews all cases whose sentences amount to life imprisonment (25 years), life imprisonment or execution. The Commission may uphold the decision, or overturn it, and return the case to court for retrial or judicial re-investigation.
In six cases, the defendants in the trials claimed that interrogators tortured or coerced them in other ways to confess, the report said. The Criminal Court overturned the release - and ordered a retrial, based on the retracted confession, and cited evidence either not considered during the trial of the accused or dismissed as unreliable. In two cases, confession was the only evidence. It was unclear from court documents whether the judges had investigated those alleged to have tortured or coerced the defendants, or whether judicial investigators, police or prosecutors had conducted criminal investigations into allegations of torture and other crimes against the defendants who had filed complaints against them.
In two cases, the defendant submitted a forensic medical report that found signs that the defendant was "subjected to external hardship," but the criminal panel ignored or rejected the report, the report said. In one case, the Criminal Court stated that “the value of the evidence available in the case does not undermine the medical report of the accused”, although the coerced confession was the only evidence presented at trial.
While the torture case was not explicitly raised in seven cases, the criminal courts in Anbar, Karkh and Kirkuk released the defendants because no evidence was provided other than their confessions, the case files showed. In each case, the criminal court found that the controversial confession was sufficient evidence to charge and ordered a retrial, the report said.
The report said the issues were of particular concern in light of comments by an Iraqi judicial expert and two experts on Iraqi law and terrorism. They all said that, through their experience, when the criminal court overturns a verdict of release and orders a retrial, it sends a clear message that the court of first instance should change its decision. They said that these trials could not be regarded as an impartial judicial order to reassess the facts of the case, but an implicit order to convict the accused.
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