The Common Ills: Hejira

Sunday, June 21, 2015

Hejira

Human Rights Watch today notes:

Iraq’s parliament should turn down a proposal to allow the justice minister, rather than the president, to ratify execution orders.

On June 15, 2015, Justice Minister Haider al-Zamili said that Iraq’s extraordinary security situation required the speedier application of the death penalty. But criminal procedures in Iraqi courts, including in death penalty cases, fall short of international fair trial standards. Judges have repeatedly admitted allegedly coerced confessions as evidence without investigation and have not allowed the accused to have qualified legal counsel. The proposed amendment to the Criminal Procedure Code would add to the concerns about how Iraq handles these cases.

“Speeding up executions by further reducing safeguards for defendants will put more innocent lives at risk,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director. “Iraq should combat violence by Islamic State insurgents with fair and transparent trials that deliver justice, not expedited executions based on torture-tainted confessions.”

The proposed change, which Iraq’s cabinet approved on June 16, 2015, would no longer require the president to ratify executions. Instead, the justice minister could ratify the sentence if the president didn’t act within 30 days of a final Court of Cassation verdict to ratify the sentence, issue clemency or a pardon, or commute the sentence.

Iraq in shambles and all the US can do is offer bombs -- and puppets like Haider al-Abadi who is only slightly worse than previous puppet Nouri al-Maliki.

Haider, like Nouri before him, let's the militias run free.

And the embarrassing US Ambassador to Iraq Stuart Jones goes on Iraqi TV to insist the US government approves of the militias.

The militias?

Seloom ‏@M_Seloom Jun 20

GRAPHIC! Militias beat a man to death chanting sectarian slogans.Militias & #ISIS commit similar atrocities #Iraq

78 retweets 30 favorites

Does anyone really wonder why things are no better in Iraq?

Margaret Griffis (Antiwar.com) counts 51 violent deaths across Iraq today.

I'm traveling in some vehicle
I'm sitting in some cafe
A defector from the petty wars
That shell shock love away
-- "Hejira," written by Joni Mitchell, first appears on her album of the same name

The number of US service members the Dept of Defense states died in the Iraq War is [PDF format warning] 4496.

Isaiah's latest goes up after this. The following community sites -- plus Jody Watley and Tavis Smiley -- updated: