27 are hanged at Abu Ghraib in first mass execution since Saddam's fall (Oliver Poole)

  Oliver Poole, Iraq Correspondent -- Telegraph

  Sept. 9, 2006 -- The brutal excesses of Saddam Hussein's regime were relived yesterday as Iraq's new government announced that it had hanged 27 prisoners convicted of terror and criminal charges.

	Abu Ghraib prison has several gallows erected in the execution chamber

  Mass executions at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison, which has several gallows erected in the execution chamber, were suspended after coalition-led troops overthrew Saddam three years ago. The death penalty was reinstituted in 2004, and yesterday's executions took place just days after control of Abu Ghraib was handed over to the Iraqi authorities.

  An Iraqi Justice Ministry official said two of those hanged had been convicted of terrorism charges, and the other 25 -- including a woman -- were convicted of murder and kidnap.

  News of the executions was made public by Nouri al-Maliki, the prime minister, when he attended a ceremony to mark the transfer of control of Iraq's military from the United States to the recently elected government.

  "This is the message I have for the terrorists," he said of the hanged prisoners, "we will see that you get great punishment wherever you are. There is nothing for you but prison and punishment."

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