MORE THAN 100 INDIVIDUALS HAVE BEEN EXECUTED IN IRAQ SINCE JANUARY, WITH A STAGGERING 8000 MORE ON DEATH ROW, ACCORDING TO IRAQ'S UN-APPROVED HUMAN RIGHT BODY.

 More than 100 individuals have been executed in Iraq since January, with a staggering 8,000 more on death row, according to Iraq's UN-approved human rights body.

The execution figures came from Iraqi Ministry of Justice data that was reviewed by the Iraqi High Commission for Human Rights, according to one commission member.

"According to the data of the Iraqi Justice Ministry that have been reviewed by the Iraqi High Commission for Human Rights,

over 100 people have been executed in Iraq," Hemin Bajalan told Rudaw English on Sunday. "There are 8,022 prisoners in Iraq convicted with execution."

Iraq has one of the highest rates of execution in the world, and is ranked in the top four along with Iran, Saudi Arabia and China, according to Human Rights Watch's 2019 report, which documented the year prior.

Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi’s government has not made public the number of executions it carried out this year, according to the watchdog.

"Iraqi authorities handed down hundreds of death sentences to those convicted under counterterrorism legislation and carried out executions without publicizing any official numbers or sharing this information with international actors," Human Rights Watch report read. 

The trials were also rushed and were sometimes based on a single confession or missing victims' testimonies, according to the report.

The 100 plus figure marks a big increase in Iraqi executions. In 2018, more than 52 recorded executions took place in Iraq, according to a report from Amnesty International. 

The more than 8,000 people with death sentences is also a striking increase from 2018.

At the end of that year, Amnesty reported that there were more than 285 people with death sentence.

Iraqi security forces captured Mosul from the Islamic State (ISIS) in late 2017, and subsequently put its alleged members and affiliates on trial.

The US-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in Syria have also transferred hundreds of ISIS fighters into Iraqi custody. 

Iraq is known to have conducted fast trials for ISIS members, often without sufficient evidence.

One member of parliament said Iraq is asking Western countries to take back their citizens who joined ISIS.

"There are many foreign ISIS fighters in Iraqi prisons, and Iraq is frequently demanding the western countries to take back their citizens who are Daesh militants,"

Bakhtiyar Shawis, a member of the parliament's human rights committee, told Rudaw English, referring to ISIS by its Arabic acronym.