ISIS leader handed death sentence for 2014 Anbar massacre

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region— An Iraqi court sentenced an Islamic State(ISIS) leader to death on Monday for committing a massacre against a Sunni tribe in Anbar province in 2014.

The Supreme Judicial Council said that al-Karkh criminal court had sentenced Ammar Mahdi al-Jubouri to death in accordance with the 2005 Counter-Terrorism Law.

According to Article Four of the law, anyone found guilty of committing a terror offense is given the death sentence, with life imprisonment given to those who assist or hide those convicted of terrorism.

According to the council, Jubouri was an ISIS leader in Fallujah, and participated in the ISIS massacre against the Albu Nimr tribe, which stood against ISIS as it swept across Anbar and other parts of Iraq. 

More than 600 people died in the massacre, tribal leaders told the BBC. 

Sheikhs accused the Iraqi government of abandoning them after fighting ISIS for 13 days, before they ran out of ammunition. 

“The government abandoned us and gave us to ISIS on a platter,” Sheikh Naeem Al Gaoud told the BBC.

Iraq is one of the world’s top four executioners, after China, Iran, and Saudi Arabia, according to Amnesty International, which recorded 100 executions in the country in 2019.

Since the rise of ISIS in 2014, thousands of people have been detained across Iraq for suspected links to terrorist groups, including ISIS, while hundreds have been executed.

At least 41,049 people are imprisoned in Iraq, including 22,380 convicted on terror-related charges, according to a document obtained by Rudaw on January 17 from the Ministry of Justice's Iraqi Reform Department.

Several terror convicts have been hanged in recent months.