The Iraqi penal code sentences to the death penalty...

The Iraqi penal code sentences to the death penalty :- anyone attempting to murder the president (article 223).- any person who carries out political activities outside of the Baath party in power (such as becoming a member of the Baath party without previously having informed it of a previous membership to other parties, maintaining relations with a previous party or leaving the Baath party to join another party (article 200).- the authors of offences such as membership to a party or an organization created in order to overthrow the regime (article 156) or for plotting against the State (article 175). - persons who seek refuge abroad, who join opponents to the regime and who reveal State secrets (including reports on the situation of the Human Rights).On March 31, 1980, Saddam Hussein signed decree 461 which sentences to capital punishment all members of the Al Dawa Islamic Party, without distinction of age (under 18 or old people). The decrees established by the CCR punish with the death penalty offences committed for a "despicable and selfish motive", car theft (decree 13/92), money forging (decree 9/93), falsification of documents relative to military service. Decree 95 provides the death penalty "for anyone (passing) illegally an automobile outside of Iraq or (passing secretly) an automobile to an hostile member".In early June 1994, the Iraqi government published a list of decrees which establish harsh punishments such as amputation, branding and the death penalty for 18 different offences. These including theft (decree 59), corruption, speculation on currency, embezzlement, forging and falsification of documents, in particular for the persons belonging to the army or for civil servants (decrees 91 , 114), trade of prohibited goods, trafficking of antiques, prostitution (decree 1418), avoidance of the draft or desertion of the army on three occasions. For these two last offences, the accused are tried by special courts belonging to the ministries of Defence and Internal Affairs. It is to note that the networks of antiques trafficking and prostitution belong to the two sons of Saddam Hussein. The Iraqi Communist Party claims that the 'prisons cleanup' campaign which is perpetrated by the dictatorial regime in Iraq since late 1997 has brought to death about 3,000 citizens.

(Sources: Human Rights Alliance, France, The Death Penalty in Iraq Report, June 2001)