The United Nation has said that it is "appalled" by a mass execution of prisoners in Iraq and called for an immediate halt to the death penalty in the country, citing flaws in the country's criminal justice system.

Iraq's Ministry of Justice said 38 prisoners were executed on terrorism-related charges in the southern city of Nasiriyah earlier this week, but it gave no details of the prisoners' identities or the offences for which they were sentenced to death. [...]

Iraqi courts are dealing with thousands of prisoners, including foreigners and hundreds of children, some as young as 13, who were detained in the past two years because they were suspected of being Isis fighters or supporters.

Gruesome accounts of summary executions and the brutal torture of detainees suspected of being Isis fighters underscore the powerful impulse for revenge against the militants, who carried out atrocities in the areas they seized after 2014.

UN human rights officials have said that speeding up the execution of accused militants could result in the deaths of innocent people. They warn that perceptions of injustice risk deepening the antagonism between Sunni and Shiite Muslims, and lay the foundation for another cycle of sectarian violence.

Thursday's executions raised the number of people believed to have been executed this year to 106, Throssell said, but the actual number could be much higher.