Citizens are denied freedom of speech, assembly, and religion. The rule of law is nonexistent. Saddam s son, a newspaper publisher, is allowed to make arbitrary decisions in criminal cases. State control is maintained by the extensive use of intimidation through arrest, torture, and summary execution. Although some safeguards for defendants exist in civil cases, political and economic cases are tried in separate security courts, where confessions extracted through torture are admissible as evidence, and no procedural safeguards are apparent.
Punishments are often disproportionate to the crimes committed.
Theft, corruption, desertion from the army, and currency speculation are punishable by amputation, branding, and execution. Doctors have been executed for refusing to carry out these punishments and for attempting reconstructive surgery. The UN and exiled opposition groups reported that at least 1,500 political prisoners had been executed in 1997. By October 1998, continued reports of political executions and torture prompted Human Rights Commissioner Max Von Stoel to conclude that no human rights improvements had been made in Iraq. The Shi ite Muslim majority, comprising over 60 percent of the population, faces severe persecution.