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
- 866
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 866 news items on Iraq, from 1999 to today.
Latest news
- 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, 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 PENALTY
IRAQ. 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, 2006ItalyDEATH PENALTY
IRAQ. ‘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 PENALTY
IRAQ. 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 PENALTY
IRAQ. 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 PENALTY
IRAQ. 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.
- OCTOBER 22, 2005IraqDEATH PENALTY
IRAQ. FOURTEEN CONDEMNED INMATES ON DEATH ROW, PRIME MINISTER
fourteen condemned prisoners sit on death row in Iraq following the execution on September 1 of three for terror activities, Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari told reporters.
- OCTOBER 22, 2005IraqDEATH PENALTY
IRAQ. PRESIDENT NOT OPPOSED TO DEATH PENALTY FOR SADDAM
Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said he was not opposed to the death for ousted dictator Saddam Hussein, currently on trial for crimes against humanity, but would not sign the decree to authorise it.
- OCTOBER 19, 2005ItalyDEATH PENALTY
HOC. “DEATH PENALTY FOR SADDAM WOULD BE A RETURN TO THE PAST”
“Sentencing to death Saddam Hussein would not be the best way of presenting the new Iraq as it would not offer a solution to the past,” declared Sergio D’Elia, Secretary of Hands Off Cain, commenting on the beginning of proceedings against the former Iraq
- OCTOBER 18, 2005IraqDEATH PENALTY
IRAQ. AMERICANS SAY HUSSEIN SHOULD FACE CAPITAL PUNISHMENT
many adults in the United States thought Saddam Hussein should face the death penalty, according to a poll by Opinion Dynamics released by Fox News. 56 per cent of respondents believed the deposed Iraqi leader should be executed if convicted, while 35 per
- OCTOBER 16, 2005IraqDEATH PENALTY
IRAQ. SADDAM'S JAILED NUMBER TWO AZIZ TO TESTIFY AGAINST OLD BOSS: REPORT
Britain’s Sunday Telegraph reported that Iraq's former number two Tareq Aziz would testify against his old boss Saddam Hussein at the toppled dictator's trial for war crimes in return for his freedom.
- OCTOBER 13, 2005IraqDEATH PENALTY
IRAQ. SADDAM FACES PUBLIC TRIAL: CHIEF JUDGE
Saddam Hussein's trial will be public, open to the media and possibly broadcast live, Iraq's chief judge in the case Raed al-Juhi said.
- OCTOBER 12, 2005IranDEATH PENALTY
IRAQ. IRAN FINALISES GENOCIDE, OTHER CHARGES AGAINST SADDAM
Iran's judiciary said it had finalised charges of genocide and using chemical weapons it hoped would be leveled against former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.