By Ajnadin Mustafa.
Tripoli, 7 September 2016:
The body of Adel Juma Shaalali, the Libyan executed in Iraq last week, arrived at Labraq airport today and was collected by the Red Crescent which in turn handed it over to his family for burial in his hometown of Derna.
Shaalali, 43, was on death row in Baghdad for four years, having been convicted in August 2012 on terrorism and murder charges. Following protests in December that year by Libyan sympathisers, the Zeidan administration succeeded in persuading the Iraqi government to delay his execution. It was again delayed in April 2014 following legal appeals.
“The possibility that Iraq might execute Shaalali without revealing even basic information about his case highlights grave concerns about Iraq’s justice system,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “The Iraqi government should immediately stay Shaalali’s execution.”
Shaalali left Libya for Iraq in 2007 and joined Jamaat Al-Tawhid wal-Jihad of Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi which later became part of the so-called Islamic State. He was later caught and accused of fighting against the US forces there and of being a terrorist.
At least one, possibly two Iraqi citizens were murdered in Derna after Shaalali’s conviction, it is thought in acts of revenge by what was then Derna’s Ansar Al-Sharia.
