UN and EU leaders alike have criticized the executions of Barzan Ibrahim and Awad Hamed al-Bandar.
Barzan was Iraqs former intelligence chief and Saddam Hussein’s half-brother, and al-Bandar was the former head of the Revolutionary Court. Both men were hanged for crimes against humanity.
UN spokesperson Michele Montas said that SG Ban Ki-moon “regrets that despite pleas from himself and the high commissioner for human rights to spare the lives of the two co-defendants, they were both executed.”
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour released a statement saying, “The imposition of the death penalty after a trial and appeal proceedings that do not respect the principles of due process amounts to a violation of the right to life.”
EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said that the executions were “detrimental also to the question of national reconciliation” in Iraq and other European leaders restated their objections to the death penalty. More