Foreign Defendants Receive Harsh Penalties for Non-Violent Acts

​Six months after about 1,400 foreign women and children surrendered with Islamic State (ISIS) fighters to Iraqi security forces, Iraq’s courts are sentencing the women to life in prison and even to death for non-violent crimes.

It’s just one indicator of how people viewed as colluding with ISIS are receiving unfair trials.

The women have been charged with illegally entering Iraq and, in some cases aiding, abetting or having membership in ISIS, which carries the penalty of life in prison or death under Iraq’s counterterrorism law.

In January, Baghdad’s Criminal Court sentenced a German woman to death. Two days ago, the same court convicted 11 Turkish women and an Azeri. One of the Turkish women was sentenced to death, and the rest [PS2] to life in prison.

There has been a flurry of activity caused by the comments made by Green’s parliamentarians Adam Bandt and Richard di Natale over recently installed Liberal Senator Jim Molan. The facts relate to the Australian situation, but the issue has wider ramifications.

The ostensible reason for the attack on Molan was his sharing of two videos originating from a Neo Nazi far right group in the United Kingdom.

Bandt, who later withdrew his remarks, called Molan a “coward” and said that Molan should be prosecuted for his service in the Iraq war. In the Senate di Natale accused Molan of overseeing a “humanitarian catastrophe” nearly 15 years ago during the assault on Fallujah, Iraq.

Di Natale said that there was “a question that needs to be answered, and the only way with answer that is through an enquiry.”
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Liberal politicians, from the Prime Minister downward, came to Molan’s defence, claiming that he was a “great Australian soldier” who “stood up for freedom.”

The Iraqi government’s postwar blueprint for reconstruction has been leaked to FRB-I with less than two weeks before Kuwait hosts the first donor conference in the history of the Gulf and Arabian peninsula. Jointly published by the Council of Ministers and the National Investment Commission, the plan’s framework is at best untested, rickety and unrealistic.

Those familiar with previous proposed infrastructure projects throughout Iraq’s history will be quick to recognise that few new ideas will land at tables where lending agencies, donors and states will be seated. The government hopes to lure investors back to jumpstart projects that were abandoned due to scarce funds, resources or circumstances that wars invite.

The patchwork of information formulated at Iraqi premier Haider al Abadi request, fails to specify a deadline, schedule or the means needed for reconstruction. The greatest number of projects proposed are agricultural, followed by projects that fall under the oil and refinery sector. The lowest number goes to the ‘tourism and recreational’ sector, followed closely by housing. Oil-based investments are prioritised over the non-oil sector which, if not bridged, will deepen the gulf.

Extravagant proposals to fix and build new railway lines also raises the fear of a national plan that is out of touch with the security arrangements that citizens have learned to organize their lives around. Until national security matters are dealt with, the vision of crosscountry rail lines is little more than a pipe dream as a country littered with checkpoints attests to. It does create greater chances of generating income by commercialising the pilgrimage season to compete with other religious centres in the region.