An Iraqi courtroom on Thursday sentenced an Islamic State group member to demise after convicting him of involvement in a 2014 suicide bombing that killed 17 pilgrims, the judiciary mentioned.
The assault in Taji district north of Baghdad focused one of many many stalls offering free meals and drinks to pilgrims throughout Shiite Muslim festivals.
The pilgrims had been heading on foot to Samarra, about 100 kilometers north of Baghdad, to commemorate the anniversary of the demise of Hassan al-Askari, one in every of 12 imams revered by Iraq’s Shiite majority.
A legal courtroom in Baghdad on Thursday sentenced “a terrorist to demise for the explosion … in 2014” through the pilgrimage in Samarra, the judiciary mentioned on its web site.
The assertion didn’t title the convict however mentioned he had “filmed the tragedy as a result of he was a member of the terrorist teams of Daesh,” utilizing the Arabic acronym for Islamic State, also called IS.
The convict has the suitable to attraction the decision.
After quickly taking up giant swathes of territory in Iraq and neighboring Syria, IS noticed its self-proclaimed “caliphate” collapse underneath successive offensives in each international locations.
Iraqi authorities declared “victory” over the Sunni Muslim extremist group on the finish of 2017, however jihadist cells proceed to sporadically launch assaults, notably on navy and police personnel in distant areas of central and northern Iraq.
In late August, three individuals have been hanged in Iraq after being convicted over an IS assault that killed 323 individuals in Baghdad in July 2016.
Amnesty Worldwide mentioned Iraq was the world’s sixth largest executioner final yr, with not less than 11 carried out.
Greater than 41 demise sentences have been issued in 2022, and greater than 45 individuals have been executed in 2020, based on the London-based human rights group.
