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.
The monument was set ablaze on March 16 when 2,000 locals - mostly young men - staged street protests to prevent officials getting into Halabja to take part in ceremonies to mark the anniversary of the 1988 attack by Saddam Hussein’s military, in which 5,000 people died.
Locals said they mounted the demonstration because of anger at what they said was cynical exploitation of their plight by local politicians.
Investigative judge Karwan Wrya Ali said that under a Baathist-era law adopted by the Iraqi Kurdistan government, the punishment for destroying government property is life in prison or death by hanging. "Anyone convicted of setting the monument on fire will be executed," he said.
He also said that demonstrators would be held responsible for the death of a 17-year-old boy, Kurda Ahmed, who, witnesses reported, was shot by security forces during the protest.