GENEVA, Switzerland, Jan. 24 (UPI) -- There are major concerns about the transparency of Iraq's judicial system following accounts of 34 executions in a single day, a U.N. rights commissioner said.
U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said she had evidence that 34 people, including two women, were executed in Iraq last week.
"Even if the most scrupulous fair-trial standards were observed, this would be a terrifying number of executions to take place in a single day," she said in a statement.
More than 1,200 people were sentenced to death in Iraq since 2004. The United Nations said it couldn't verify how many of those were executed but noted at least 63 were put to death since Nov. 16.
Pillay added that nobody sentenced to death in Iraq has received a pardon despite reports that some confessions were extracted under duress.
"I call on the government of Iraq to implement an immediate moratorium on the institution of death penalty," she said.
The United Nations notes Iraqi law spells out 48 crimes punishable by death.
