Iraq
2026
- GOVERNMENT
- federal parliamentary democracy
- CONSTITUTION
- ratified on October 15, 2005 (currently under review by the Constitutional Committee and likely to be subject to a referendum in the future)
- LEGAL SYSTEM
- based on European civil law and Islamic law
- LEGISLATIVE SYSTEM
- Council of Representatives
- JUDICIAL SYSTEM
- according to the constitution, the federal judiciary includes the High Judicial Council, the Federal Supreme Court, the Federal Court of Cassation, the Public Prosecutor's Department, the Judicial Oversight Commission, and other federal courts
RELIGIONS
97% Muslims; Christian and Hindu minorities
From the country
- JUNE 23, 2006IraqDEATH PENALTY
IRAQ. SADDAM SHOULDN'T BE EXECUTED, CARDINAL
a senior Vatican cardinal was quoted as saying that former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein should not be executed because all life is sacred.
- JUNE 22, 2006IraqDEATH PENALTY
IRAQ. SADDAM ON HUNGER STRIKE TO PROTEST LAWYER'S MURDER
deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein has gone on hunger strike to protest the killing of his lawyer, his lead lawyer Khalil al-Dulaimi said.
JUNE 19, 2006ItalyDEATH PENALTYIRAQ. HANDS OFF CAIN, ''HANDS OFF SADDAM''
“Our Hands Off Cain is also valid for Saddam: thus, ‘hands off Saddam’, which does not equate to non-punishment, but physical wellbeing and human dignity”, stated Secretary and Treasurer of Hands Off Cain Sergio D’Elia and Elisabetta Zamparutti in comment
JUNE 19, 2006IraqDEATH PENALTYIRAQ. PROSECUTORS SEEK DEATH FOR SADDAM
prosecutors demanded the death penalty for Saddam Hussein and three of his former aides for crimes against humanity following a 1982 crackdown on Shi'ites in which hundreds were killed and tortured after an attempt on the Iraqi leader's life in the villag
JUNE 19, 2006ItalyDEATH PENALTYIRAQ. ‘NO TO THE DEATH PENALTY FOR SADDAM HUSSEIN’, CAPPATO
“The request put forward by prosecutors to sentence Saddam Hussein to death will not bring justice to the genocides, torture and to the atrocious crimes against the Iraqi population committed by the former Baghdad strongman”.
- MAY 16, 2006IraqDEATH PENALTY
IRAQ. SISTANI RENOUNCES FATWA ON GAYS
rights campaigners were claiming a moral victory after Iraq's Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani appeared to renounce a fatwa calling for the killing of homosexuals "in the most severe way".
- MAY 14, 2006IraqDEATH PENALTY
IRAQ. SADDAM READY FOR HANGMAN
former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein has resigned himself to being sent to the gallows. "I am ready to die," he told his lawyer and confidante in an interview in his Baghdad prison. "I am not scared of execution."
APRIL 21, 2006IraqDEATH PENALTYIRAQ. MAN SENTENCED TO DEATH OVER BOMBING OF UN HEADQUARTERS
an Iraqi court tried and sentenced to death a man allegedly linked to Al Qaeda who confessed to the 2003 truck-bombing of the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad.
- APRIL 20, 2006IraqDEATH PENALTY
IRAQ. MAN SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR KIDNAPPING
the Baghdad Central Criminal Court issued a death sentence against a man convicted of kidnapping, the state- funded Al Sabah newspaper reported.
- APRIL 13, 2006IraqDEATH PENALTY
IRAQ. REINSTATED DEATH PENALTY RAISES DEEP MORAL QUESTIONS
"In Saddam's time and in all times the death penalty is not good. There is no justice and sometimes innocent people are killed without good reason," Baghdad resident Omar Abdul Aziz told IPS.
- APRIL 7, 2006IraqDEATH PENALTY
IRAQ. SADDAM ADMITS TO EXECUTION ORDER
subjected to cross-examination for the first time, former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein admitted that he had signed an order of execution for 148 men and boys with only a cursory glance at the evidence.
APRIL 4, 2006IraqDEATH PENALTYIRAQ. 12 ANSAR AL-ISLAM MEMBERS SENTENCED TO DEATH
a court in Iraq's northern Kurdistan region sentenced to death 12 members of militant group Ansar al-Islam for numerous killings and explosions, an Arbil judiciary official said.