The attack in Taji district north of Baghdad targeted a “mawkeb,” one of the many stalls providing free food and drinks to pilgrims during Shiite Muslim festivals.
The pilgrims had been heading on foot to Samarra, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) north of Baghdad, to commemorate the anniversary of the death of Hassan Al-Askari, one of 12 imams revered by Iraq’s Shiite majority.
A criminal court in Baghdad on Thursday sentenced “a terrorist to death for the explosion of a mawkeb in 2014” during the pilgrimage in Samarra, the judiciary said on its website.
The statement did not name the convict but said he had “filmed the tragedy because he was a member of the terrorist groups of Daesh,” using the Arabic acronym for Daesh.
The convict has the right to appeal the verdict.
After rapidly taking over large swathes of territory in Iraq and neighboring Syria, Daesh saw its self-proclaimed “caliphate” collapse under successive offensives in both countries.
Iraqi authorities declared “victory” over the Sunni Muslim extremist group at the end of 2017, but militant cells continue to sporadically launch attacks, particularly on military and police personnel in remote areas of central and northern Iraq.
In late August, three people were hanged in Iraq after being convicted over an Daesh attack that killed 323 people in Baghdad in July 2016.
Amnesty International said Iraq was the world’s sixth biggest executioner last year, with at least 11 carried out.
More than 41 death sentences were issued in 2022, and more than 45 people were executed in 2020, according to the London-based human rights group.
Iran on Saturday(08-07-2023)executed two men over involvement in an attack on a popular shrine in southern Fars province that killed 13 people.
The two men, identified as Mohammad Ramez Rashidi and Naeim Hashem Qetali, were publicly executed in Shiraz, the capital city of Fars province, Mizan News Agency, which is affiliated with Iran’s judiciary, reported.
Their sentences were earlier upheld by Iran’s apex court after appeals filed by their lawyers were turned down.
At least 13 people were killed and 40 others injured when a heavily-armed man opened indiscriminate fire inside the Shah Cheragh shrine in the city of Shiraz on October 26, 2022.
The 12th-century shrine, which houses the grave of a revered Shia scholar, is a popular attraction for local and foreign tourists in southern Fars province.
CCTV footage released by police after the attack showed a lone gunman barging inside the shrine and firing at guards and pilgrims before being nailed down by police forces.
The attacker, identified by Iranian media outlets as Hamed Badakhshan, succumbed to injuries sustained in the attack days later at a hospital in Shiraz.
The Daesh/ISIS terrorist group claimed responsibility for the attack, the deadliest in Iran in many years.
In March, a court in Fars province sentenced two people to death over the attack after being convicted of “aiding in corruption on earth, rebellion and action against national security.”
The two men, Iranian judicial authorities said, were “directly involved in the arming, procurement, support and guidance” of the main perpetrator of the attack.
The other three defendants in the high-profile case were given 5, 15, and 25 years respectively for being members of the Daesh/ISIS terrorist group in Iran.
A total of 42 people were arrested in connection with the attack that sent shockwaves across the country and led to calls for retaliation.
Top Iranian officials, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Ebrahim Raisi, at the time vowed to punish the perpetrators of the attack.
It was the first major attack in Iran claimed by Daesh/ISIS since 2017, when five heavily-armed men attacked the Iranian Parliament and the mausoleum of the country’s founder, Ayatollah Khomeini, in Tehran.
The Shiraz shrine attack came amid widespread protests in Iran over the death of a 22-year-old Iranian woman, Mahsa Amini, in police custody.
