A/HRC/38/44/Add.1 that investigations into violations reported by international media had found that some alleged violations had indeed occurred and stated that the alleged perpetrators had been referred to the judiciary.41 58. The Special Rapporteur was informed that these and other steps towards ensuring accountability have been taken, including the establishment of a directorate for security and discipline, staffed with investigators, and a detention centre in Baghdad, holding up to 200 members of affiliated forces accused of various crimes. However, it is unclear how effective these accountability mechanisms and the investigations conducted to date are, as it appears that no legal proceedings have been opened in any of the above-mentioned or other reported cases. It is further unclear how individual members of ISF and affiliated forces, as well as their superiors, if command responsibility can be established, will be held to account for such violations under the current domestic legal framework. Death penalty42 3. 59. Iraq maintains the capital punishment and continues to implement it to date. The Kurdistan Regional Government, while also maintaining capital punishment, seemed to have established a de facto moratorium on executions since 2008. However, it was breached on two occasions in 2015 and 2016 with three executions. Both the Federal and Regional Governments cited popular pressure as a reason to continue to apply/resume the death penalty, in particular in response to crimes committed by ISIL. 60. The death penalty is most frequently applied under the Penal Code and the AntiTerrorism Law. Both impose the capital punishment for a range of crimes, not all of which satisfy international requirements that limit its application to premeditated murder only. Crimes punishable by the death penalty under the Anti-Terrorism Law include participation in an armed terrorist gang; assault with firearms or use of explosive and incendiary devices designed to kill with a terrorist motive; and kidnapping or impeding the freedoms of individuals. Mitigating circumstances, i.e. the accused provides information leading to the prevention of another terrorist act or apprehension of further suspects, may apply, in which case sentencing is reduced to life imprisonment (art. 5). 61. The Criminal Procedure Code provides a number of procedural guarantees, including the right of the accused to legal representation starting before questioning (art. 123) and the prohibition of, inter alia, mistreatment, threats, injury or psychological pressure to influence the accused or extract a confession (art. 127). The death penalty may not be imposed on juvenile offenders, i.e. minors or those aged between 18 and 21 at the time of the commission of the alleged crime, or on pregnant women and women up to four months after giving birth (arts. 79 of the Penal Code and 287 A of the Criminal Procedure Code). 43 In such cases the death penalty may be commuted to life imprisonment. 44 The method of execution is by hanging (art. 288). 62. The Kurdistan Regional Government enacted its own piece of counter-terrorism legislation, the Anti-Terrorism Law (No. 3) of 2006, which expired on 18 July 2016. Similar to the federal version, it imposed mandatory death sentences for a number of crimes, not all of which constitute “most serious crimes”. The Special Rapporteur was informed that the main body of law to be applied in terrorism cases now is the Penal Code. However, concerns have been raised that the expired law continues to be applied to crimes alleged to have been committed before the law expired, which covers the majority of alleged ISIL crimes. 63. On 17 December 2017, the recently reconvened Kurdistan Parliament ratified the General Amnesty Law in Kurdistan Region (No. 4) of 2017. The Amnesty Law provides for the reduction of sentences for convicted persons and persons currently being tried for offences that took place prior to the enactment of the law. Persons already sentenced to 41 42 43 44 14 UNAMI/OHCHR, “Report on Human Rights in Iraq: January–June 2017”, p. 2. The Government provided a divergent analysis (A/HRC/38/44/Add.4, sect. 19). UNAMI/OHCHR, “Report on the death penalty in Iraq”, October 2014, p. 10. Ibid.