BAGHDAD: Human Rights Watch accused Iraq on Tuesday of widening the “scale and pace of unlawful executions in 2024”, calling on authorities to “urgently halt all pending executions and declare a moratorium”.

In recent years Iraqi courts have ordered hundreds of executions in “terror” cases, proceedings that rights groups say often lack due process or in which confessions suspected to have been extracted through torture are admissible. “The Iraqi government dramatically increased the scale and pace of unlawful executions in 2024,” HRW said.