Iraq to Hang 36 ISIS Fighters for Massacre of 1,700 Captives
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - Thirty-six ISIS (also known as ISIL or Daesh) fighters are set to be executed in Iraq this week for the notorious massacre of 1,700 soldiers.
The Iraqi president has approved the mass hanging despite protests from human rights groups.
Some of the soldiers in Camp Speicher survived the onslaught on 12 June 2014 and told horror stories of how their colleagues were rounded up for slaughter.
During the horrifying killing, ISIS militants packed hundreds of men into trucks and told them they would be returned to their families – but instead they were taken to a nearby riverbank, lined up and mercilessly shot at close range.
Photos from the scene showed masked ISIS fighters tying up the cadets and firing at them as they lay down in mass graves in the desert.
Thirty-six of the 40 militants convicted of the killing in Camp Speicher in Tikrit will be killed this week, Iraqi authorities confirmed, Mirror reported.
President Fuad Masum approved the executions after video from the massacre emerged showing detailed evidence of the men involved.
But human rights groups claim the case against the defendants relied on confessions extracted under torture and their lawyer failed to properly challenge the evidence during two separate trials.
The UN also expressed concern last month over Iraq's attempt to speed up the appeal process for people on death row, saying "fast-tracking executions will only accelerate injustice."
But victims of the 1,700 slaughtered in June 2014 praised President Masum's decision.
Majid Ameen, the dad of one of the military pupils killed, told the Times: "We are pleased with the president's decision."
