Iraq
Death penalty and prisoners' rights · Archive since 1999
Data card
- Legal status
- Retentionist
- Executions recorded in 2026
- 1
- Executions recorded in 2025
- 0
- First news item in the archive
- JANUARY 1, 1999 · In mid-January, Col
- News items in the archive
- 874
Source: Hands Off Cain database, updated to 2026.
Iraq is classified as Retentionist in the Hands Off Cain database, updated to 2026. In 2026 the association recorded 1 executions in the country, against 0 the year before. The archive holds 874 news items on Iraq, from 1999 to today.
In Iraq death sentences come largely from terrorism proceedings, often collective and concluded quickly. The method is hanging. Executions are carried out in groups, usually with no notice to the families and with announcements afterwards.
International bodies have repeatedly reported trials lacking minimum guarantees and sentences founded on confessions. The archive follows executions, sentences and requests for a stay.
Latest news
- JULY 26, 2006IraqDEATH PENALTY
IRAQ. SADDAM OPTS FOR FIRING SQUAD
Saddam Hussein declared he would like to be executed by firing squad rather than hanged like "a common criminal" if sentenced to death at the end of his trial for genocide.
- JULY 21, 2006Vatican CityDEATH PENALTY
VATICAN CITY. VATICAN OPPOSES DEATH PENALTY FOR HUSSEIN
the Vatican demanded that former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein not be sentenced to death
JULY 5, 2006IraqDEATH PENALTYIRAQ. PM MALIKI SAYS HOPES SADDAM EXECUTED SOON
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said he hoped former President Saddam Hussein, under trial for crimes against humanity, would be executed soon.
- JUNE 29, 2006IraqDEATH PENALTY
IRAQ. 22 EXECUTIONS AND 260 DEATH SENTENCES IN TWO YEARS
Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri-al-Maliki said that courts in the country had sentenced 260 people to death in the past two years.
JUNE 27, 2006IraqDEATH PENALTYIRAQ. SAVING SADDAM FROM EXECUTION IS OPPORTUNITY FOR ITALY FOLLOWING DECISION TO WITHDRAW TROOPS, ROSE IN THE FIST
“What is the Italian government’s intention regarding the offer made by Marco Pannella for a special appointment to save Saddam from execution, and with Saddam’s life, the life of the rights and the civility which he massacred during 50 years of bloody ru
JUNE 25, 2006IraqDEATH PENALTYIRAQ. GIVE ME THE APPOINTMENT TO SAVE SADDAM AND HIS EVENTUAL EXECUTIONERS, PANNELLA
Marco Pannella formally asked Italy’s government to be appointed with the objective of saving Saddam Hussein from the death penalty.
- 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 PENALTY
IRAQ. 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.
- MARCH 23, 2006IraqDEATH PENALTY
IRAQ. HALABJA PROTESTERS MAY FACE DEATH PENALTY
it was reported that demonstrators who torched a monument to the victims of a gas attack on Halabja faced the death penalty if convicted, according to a judge investigating the incident.
MARCH 13, 2006IraqDEATH PENALTYIRAQ. EX-SADDAM JUDGE: DEATH SENTENCES LEGAL
Awad al-Bandar a former judge from Saddam Hussein's regime, admitted to sentencing 148 Shiites to death in the 1980s, but maintained they received a fair trial and had confessed to trying to assassinate the former Iraqi leader.
- MARCH 9, 2006IraqDEATH PENALTY
IRAQ. 13 INSURGENTS HANGED
Iraqi authorities hanged 13 insurgents, marking the first time militants had been executed in the country since Saddam Hussein was ousted, the government said.
- MARCH 1, 2006IraqDEATH PENALTY
IRAQ. SADDAM ADMITS ORDERING EXECUTIONS
Saddam Hussein admitted in court that he gave orders that led to the execution of Shi'ite Muslims in the 1980s, but justified the punishment as his right as Iraq's president.
- FEBRUARY 16, 2006IraqDEATH PENALTY
IRAQ. DEATH SQUAD PROBE
Iraq’s Interior Ministry launched an investigation into claims that a police death squad had been operating in the country.
- FEBRUARY 1, 2006IraqDEATH PENALTY
IRAQ. SADDAM'S DEFENCE SAYS NO COURT UNTIL JUDGE RESIGNS
the chief lawyer in the defence team representing former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein said that the defence would not appear in court until newly selected chief judge Raouf Abdel Rahman resigned.
- JANUARY 3, 2006IraqDEATH PENALTY
IRAQ. SADDAM HUSSEIN PREFERS DEATH BY FIRING SQAD, REPORT
former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein told two of his lawyers that if he was sentenced to death for war crimes, he would rather die by firing squad than by hanging, The Washington Times said.
- JANUARY 1, 2006IraqDEATH PENALTY
On April 9, 2003 Saddam Hussein’s Baathist regime was overthrown by a US-led military coalition.
On April 9, 2003 Saddam Hussein’s Baathist regime was overthrown by a US-led military coalition.
- DECEMBER 4, 2005IraqDEATH PENALTY
the UN said that Saddam Hussein's trial would
the UN said that Saddam Hussein's trial would
- NOVEMBER 8, 2005IraqDEATH PENALTY
IRAQ. ATTORNEY FOR SADDAM CO-DEFENDANT SHOT, COLLEAGUE KILLED
a lawyer working for one of the co-defendants of ousted president Saddam Hussein on trial over the massacre of Shiite civilians was wounded while a colleague was killed by armed men in Baghdad.
- NOVEMBER 2, 2005IraqDEATH PENALTY
On April 9, 2003 Saddam Hussein’s Baathist regime was overthrown by a US-led military coalition.
On April 9, 2003 Saddam Hussein’s Baathist regime was overthrown by a US-led military coalition.
- OCTOBER 23, 2005IraqDEATH PENALTY
IRAQ. BAR ASSOCIATION URGES BOYCOTT OF SADDAM COURT
the Iraqi Bar Association urged lawyers to stop working with the special court hearing the case against Saddam Hussein until the murder of Saadoun Janabi, a member of the defense team, was solved.