Iraq stays execution of Yemeni held at 16

Baghdad: Iraq has suspended the execution of a Yemeni prisoner whose family claims was 16 years old when he was taken into custody, an Iraqi official and human rights advocates said Wednesday. Iraqi officials dispute that he was a minor at the time of his arrest.

Human Rights Watch earlier this week urged authorities in Baghdad to stay the execution of Saleh Moussa Ahmed Al Baidany. The group said his execution would have been Iraq’s first in 25 years of someone who was a minor when detained.

Al Baidany was picked up by the US military in August 2009 along the Iraq-Syria border, his father told the advocacy group. He was later handed over to Iraqi authorities, found guilty of terrorist activities and sentenced to death.

The advocacy group’s Iraq researcher, Erin Evers, said the sentence has now been postponed, although Al Baidany remains detained on death row and his fate is uncertain.

“We’re still extremely concerned about his position,” she said. “Nobody’s made any promises.”

Iraqi Deputy Justice Minister Busho Ebrahim confirmed that Al Baidany’s execution has been halted until further notice following an intervention by Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari. Ebrahim disputed claims by the Yemeni’s family that he was a minor at the time of his arrest.

Al Baidany was carrying no documents showing his age when he was detained, so authorities turned to a forensic medical committee to figure out how old he was, Ebrahim said. It determined he was born in 1987, making him about 22 years old at the time of his capture.

Supreme Judicial Council spokesman Abdul-Sattar Bayrkdar had no details on the case. Under Iraqi law, someone arrested at age 16 would not be subject to the death penalty, he said.

The Yemeni man’s father, Moosa Al Baidany, told the rights group his son was 16 when he was detained and said he has a birth certificate to prove it.

In a phone interview from Yemen, he said the family remains worried about the detained man’s fate. The younger Al Baidany had been living with his grandmother before making his way to Iraq.

“My son was still young and had no experience in this life, and his travelling to Iraq was the wrong thing to do,” he said. “I hope the Iraqi government shows mercy.”

Iraqi authorities this week also halted the execution of a Libyan man whose case was highlighted by Human Rights Watch, Ibrahim said. The group had said it was concerned that Iraq would put Adel Shalani to death without disclosing details about the case.

Iraq has executed 129 people so far this year, an increase over previous years. Most of those sentenced to death were convicted in terrorism-related cases.

International observers have raised concerns about the fairness of the legal process and the possibility that some of the verdicts were politically motivated, including death sentences issued against the country’s fugitive Sunni vice president, Tariq Al Hashemi.

Iraq continues to struggle with law and order nearly 10 years after the US-led invasion.

Attacks Wednesday killed four police officers in Fallujah, 65km west of Baghdad, and two others in Abu Ghraib in the western suburbs of Baghdad, according to police and hospital officials. Gunmen also shot dead a police captain in Mahmoudiya, about 30km south of the capital.