BAGHDAD, Aug 8 (AFP) - Iraq`s caretaker government on Sunday reinstated the death penalty for murderers, drug traffickers and those endangering national security, government officials said.
Mass killings, strikes against Iraq`s vital infrastructure and biological weapons attacks would also be punishable by death, Deputy Justice Minister Busho Ibrahim told a Baghdad news conference, reading out a copy of the law.
"Yesterday we announced an amnesty. Today the death penalty. Choose one of them," spokesman Gurgis Sada told AFP. The law came into immediate effect.
A limited 30-day amnesty unveiled on Saturday by Prime Minister Iyad Allawi for "minor criminals" had been delayed because the caretaker government wanted to unveil the death penalty at the same time, Sada said.
Minister of State Adnan al-Janabi said the death penalty would apply to anyone, foreigners included, who committed the listed serious crimes on Iraqi territory.
"Iraqis want to see those who are commiting crimes to be punished ... Ask the Iraqi people if they want this and they will give you the answer," he said.
Capital punishment, which had been in force under the ousted regime of president Saddam Hussein, was abolished by the previous US-led occupation authority.
Many Iraqis had demanded that Saddam and other top figures of the old regime, charged with committing crimes against humanity and war crimes, be executed.
Human Rights Minister Bakhtiar Amin told reporters that he reluctantly backed the law.
"This is the most difficult day in my life ... I agreed to to it because we must restore security and peace to this country and fight terror, organised crime and the killers," he said.
"We would like to be in the future part of the 109 nations that have abolished the penalty," once stability and security have been restored, Amin added.
The European Union has voiced strong opposition to the death sentence being reinstated in Iraq.