Justice for Barzani tribe after 42 years

One of the perpetrators of the Barzani massacre has been sentenced, according to volunteer lawyer and senior member of KONCICC Ayad Kakai.

The High Criminal Court in Baghdad reviewed the case of the Barzani massacre today, 28th of December 2025, involving three defendants implicated in the disappearance and extermination of Barzani people in Anbar, Fallujah, and the Al-Shiha desert. The defendants are Saadoun Sabri, Jamil Al-Qaisi and Shaker Taha Yahya Ghafour Al-Douri.

Six victims: mothers, sisters, and relatives of the victims of the Barzani massacre attended the session. The court sentenced Shaker Taha Yahya Ghafour Al-Douri to death. The ruling was upheld based on Articles 12 and 15 of the Iraqi High Criminal Court Law No. 10 and Article 406 of the Iraqi Penal Code No. 111 of 1969 and ordered the release of Saadoun Sabri and Jamil Al-Qaisi due to insufficient evidence proving the defendant’s involvement in the case.

On July 31, 1983, an estimated 8,000 members of the Barzani tribe were rounded up and abducted from their homes in the Kurdistan Region’s Zagros Mountains before being transported to the deserts of southern Iraq, where they were executed on the orders of the Baathist regime. The atrocity was an act of collective punishment of the Barzanis, whose leaders were active in Kurdish revolts against the Iraqi regime. Men and boys were the primary targets, but women, children, and the elderly were all victims. – Rudaw

Other press releases on this case: The new region: Baath-era official sentenced to death for Barzani Genocide , Shafaq: Iraq hands death sentence to ex-Baath officer over Barzani crimes