07 November 2011

Iraq: Imminent danger of the execution of an Egyptian condemned to death

On 7 November 2011, Alkarama learned that Suleiman Abderraouf, a 45-year-old Egyptian national detained in Al-Khadimiya prison in Baghdad and recently condemned to death with the approval of the Iraqi president, risks being executed at any moment. Suleiman Abderraouf was arrested in 2006 and condemned to death in an unfair trial in 2008 on the sole basis of confessions extracted under torture.

On 20 October last, the Presidential Council ratified the us of the death penalty in the cases of 53 death row inmates, including Suleiman Abderraouf, Mohamed Fraj Allah, Adel Mohamed Ali, Nasser Mojib, Yousri Al-Tariqi and Badr Mohamed Ali, six nationals from Arab countries. Eight of the 53, including the Moroccan national Badr Mohammed Ali, were executed on 27 October. Suleiman Abderraouf and the other prisoners may suffer the same fate at any moment.

After the invasion of Iraq in 2003, the American and Iraqi authorities made a number of arrests of nationals of Arab countries under suspicion for having come into the country to fight against the occupation forces. The majority of them have been detained in Iraqi prisons and submitted to torture before being brought before exceptional courts and sentenced to heavy punishments or to the death penalty following unfair trials. Very often, confessions have been extracted under torture and constitute the sole pieces of evidence upon which the sentences are based. In the case of Suleiman Abderraouf, he was one of a number of Arab nationals who resided in Iraq before the invasion of 2003 and the fall of the regime of Saddam Hussein. Iran and other countries from the Arab world have intervened in favor of their detained nationals, following which several have been released. The Iraqi authorities have committed to not executing some of the remaining detainees on other Arab nationals.

Fearing that Suleiman Abderraouff will be executed soon, Alkarama sent an urgent appeal to the Special Rapporteur on Extrajudical Executions on 7 November 2011 asking that he intervenes with the Iraqi authorities to suspend the execution of his sentence to death.

Lebanon - HR Instruments

International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)

ICCPR: Accessed on 03.11.1972
Optional Protocol: No

State report: Overdue since 21.03.2001 (3rd)
Last concluding observations: 05.05.1997

Convention against Torture (CAT)

CAT: Accessed on 05.10.2000
Optional Protocol: Yes
Art. 20 (Confidential inquiry): Yes
Art. 22 (Individual communications): No

State report: Overdue since 03.11.2001 (1st)
Last concluding observations: N/A

International Convention for the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearance (CED)

CED: Signed on 06.02.2007

Universal Periodic Review (UPR)

Last review: 11.2010 (1st cycle)
Next review: 2015 (2nd cycle)

National Human Rights Institution (NHRI)

No