Iraqi court hands down 22 death sentences in four weeks

James Cogan, WSWS
Over the four weeks from May 6 to June 2, the Central Criminal Court in Iraq (CCCI) sentenced 22 people to death, 21 to life imprisonment and dozens more to terms of between 10 and 30 years. At this rate, the US-backed Iraqi regime will order the judicial murder of well over 250 people by the end of the year and condemn another 2,000 to lengthy prison terms. In numerous cases, the "crimes" for which Iraqis have been convicted were acts of war against US occupation forces. The CCCI was created in April 2004 by the US-controlled Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) for the specific purpose of processing Iraqi insurgents as criminals rather than prisoners-of-war. It was kept in place by the subsequent Iraqi "interim" and "transitional" governments, as well as the current regime of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. But neither the US-supervised polls nor the various puppet regimes can in any way de-legitimise armed resistance to what was an illegal US invasion and occupation...
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