Iraq central court announces conviction of 35

Iraq's Central Criminal Court building


BAGHDAD, Iraq Iraq's Central Criminal Court said Thursday it had convicted 35 suspected insurgents on a wide variety of crimes, including a man captured wearing a vest of plastic explosives and ball bearings.

The would-be suicide bomber, Mohammed Ali Khuder, was given a sentence of life in prison after being found guilty of illegal weapons violations. It was the highest in the range of sentences handed down in the convictions before the court between Sept. 1 and 7.

Farouqh Omar Felayeh Hassan was also found guilty of the same charge and given life in prison after being captured outside a house where coalition forces found rockets, mortars, small arms and ammunition, and a camcorder with a video of U.S. Bradley vehicles conducting patrols.

Most convictions were for lesser weapons violations, while other sentences included 15 years to a man convicted of illegally entering Iraq, and another who got two years for not possessing a valid resident identity card.

To date, the central court has held 1,484 trials of people suspected of anti-Iraqi and anti-coalition activity, resulting in 1,287 convictions with sentences up to death.

Read the rest at the International Herald Tribune