People are turning up missing and bodies are being found in mass graves. Iraq is currently executing hundreds of people in batches of twenty, for the 'crime' of being gay.
In 2005, Iraq's most influential Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, issued a religious decree that said gay men and women should be �punished, in fact, killed.� He added, �The people should be killed in the worst, most severe way of killing.�
According to ukgaynews.org, 128 executions are imminent this week, and Iraqi human rights organization's Ali Hili is calling on the government, international human rights groups and the United Nations Human Rights Commission to intervene "with due speed" to prevent "this tragic miscarriage of justice" from going ahead.
"Most are likely to have been sentenced to death by the Central Criminal Court of Iraq, whose proceedings consistently fall short of international standards for fair trial," says Hili.
Visit the Iraqi LGBT human rights site for more information and to donate.
11:27 a.m. - 2009-04-22