UNITED NATIONS. ENVOY URGES IRAQ TO RECONSIDER DEATH PENALTY

Ashraf Qazi, special representative of UN secretary general Kofi Annan, urged Iraq to reconsider carrying out the first executions since the 2003 overthrow of former dictator Saddam Hussein.
Qazi said he "deeply regrets" the decision of an Iraqi government "in the process of transition" to reinstate the death penalty.
"One should look at consolidating the right to life instead of imposing the death penalty which has a very poor recognised effect in deterring crimes," Qazi said in statement. The United Nations said that Vice President Adel Abdel Mehdi had signed a decree on August 17 authorising the execution of three men sentenced to death for kidnapping policemen and raping Iraqi women. The men, suspected members of Al-Qaeda-linked group Ansar al-Sunna, were sentenced to death in May -- a verdict later approved by the Supreme Council for Justice, the highest judicial authority in Iraq.
Qazi pointed out in his statement, released by the New York office of the UN Mission for Iraq (UNAMI), that the Human Rights Commission in Geneva had "condemned the application of the death penalty" in April 2005.
Bayan Ahmad al-Jaf, a 30-year-old Kurdish taxi driver, and two Sunni Arabs -- Uday Dawud al-Dulaimi, a 25-year-old builder, and Taher Jassem Abbas, a 44-year-old butcher – were reportedly due for execution in the next few days in the central city of Kut.
How they would be killed is not known, although during Saddam's regime common criminals used to be hanged, while deserting soldiers faced the firing squad.
Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, a longstanding opponent of the death penalty, refused to sign the death warrants instead delegating the task to Mehdi.