Sixteen death sentences were handed down earlier this month by the Iraqi court where U.S. troops often are called to testify against the people they’ve arrested.
In all, officials said, the Central Criminal Court of Iraq convicted 99 people between May 20 and June 2.
One of the death penalty cases was against Dawud Salaman Al Ubydi, a 39-year-old member of al-Qaida in Iraq. He was found guilty of participating in the attacks on the Sheraton and Al Hamah hotels. He had been captured in September, officials said.
In the largest case, six Iraqis — identified as Moaazea Khazaal Abdul, Hussein Jihad Hassan, Abd Al Qadar Qasim Jameel, Mustafa Mahmoud Ismael, Qais Habib Aslem, and Islam Mustafa Abd Al Sattar — were sentenced to death for kidnapping three men and killing one of them.
The kidnappers held the men for $100,000 ransom near the Adhamiyah district of Baghdad. They were captured in September by soldiers from the 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry Regiment in September.
In another case, the court sentenced to death Marwan Jassim Hamadi, 21; Ali Akil Abass, 19; and Talab Abulla Abbas, 26, for kidnapping and torturing an Iraqi man in Anbar province. The three were captured by Marines from the 3rd Recon Battalion, 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, on Nov. 28. The court found that the hostages were to have been executed just hours before their rescue.
Faris Abdallah Alwan, 27, was given the death penalty after being convicted of being a “media and propaganda emir for a terrorist organization.” Alwan was captured by the 1st Squadron, 40th Cavalry Division (Airborne) in December in Baghdad.
Another death penalty case involved a Libyan and a Saudi who were convicted of illegally entering Iraq to fight American and Iraqi troops. The men were captured in Anbar by Iraqi troops and handed over to the U.S. military in February.
Since April 2004, the court has held 2,211 trials, resulting in 1,957 convictions, according to the U.S. military.
