A criminal court in the southern Iraqi city of Karbala has issued the first six death sentences in the country since the toppling of former president Saddam Hussein's regime.

Chief of police in Karbala, 100 km south of Iraq's capital of Baghdad, said the court issued a fair sentence for criminals who had committed crimes against the people of the city and violated security law.  

The death penalty, once suspended by Paul Bremer, the American civil administrator in Iraq, has been reactivated by the interim Iraqi government in a bid to put an end to the terrorist attacks and organized crimes in Iraq.

(CRI July 9, 2004)