[JURIST] Middle East spokeswoman for Amnesty International [advocacy website] Nicole Choueiry expressed the group's opposition Monday to a recent announcement from Iraq's Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari [Wikipedia profile] that the death penalty would be retained in Iraq and that the new government would be willing to use it to combat serious offenses like murder, kidnapping, and drug dealing. Al-Jaafari vowed to deal especially harshly with anyone trying to incite warfare between Shi'ites and Sunnis, a recent insurgent tactic. The Iraqi Red Crescent Society [profile, PDF] has denounced the use of the death penalty as an abuse of international human rights laws. IRIN has more.