Al-Hout houses +8,000 inmates on death row, each cost +10$ a day; source

Shafaq News/ The Nasiriyah Central Prison, also known as al-Hout, houses more than 8,000 inmates on death row, a security official said on Friday.

The official, who preferred to remain anonymous, told Shafaq News Agency, "more than 8,000 members of al-Qaeda and ISIS are detained in al-Hout prison in Southern Iraq after being sentenced to the capital penalty. However, they have not been executed even though  the majority were convicted four years ago."

"Each prisoner costs the treasury at least 10 dollars a day," the official added.

In Iraq, the death penalty is regulated by national legislation. It is imposed on persons found guilty of a variety of different crimes including murder, treason, espionage, rape, kidnapping, terrorism, war crimes, and drug trafficking.

However, people accused of terrorism face particular scrutiny because their cases are judged based on the Anti-Terrorism Law (No. 13) of 2005. According to articles 2 and 3 of this law, if a person is found guilty of a codified crime, either as an accomplice to the crime or a mastermind of it, the sentence is death.

In many cases, Iraq officials have elevated the Anti-Terrorism Law over the Criminal Procedure Code. This means that people accused of terrorist activities could see the denial of their fundamental civil rights.

A 2005 law carries the death penalty for anyone convicted of "terrorism," which can include membership of an extremist group even if they are not convicted of any specific acts.

Rights groups have warned that executions were being used for political reasons.

Since the official declaration of victory over IS, Iraq's courts have sentenced hundreds to death for crimes perpetrated during the jihadists' 2014 seizure of around a third of the country and their brutal three-year hold over cities, including Mosul.

But only a small proportion of the sentences have been carried out, as they must be approved by the president.

Barham Saleh, who has held the post since 2018, is known to be personally against capital punishment and has resisted signing execution orders in the past.

Despite Saleh's moderating influence, Iraq in 2019 carried out the fourth-highest number of executions among nations worldwide, after China, Iran, and Saudi Arabia, according to Amnesty International.

Iraq carried out 100 executions that year, one out of every seven worldwide.

They include 21 men convicted of "terrorism" and executed at the notorious Nasiriyah prison in November.

The move sparked condemnations from the United Nations, which described the news as "deeply troubling" and called on Iraq to halt any further planned executions.