Isis gay execution building demolished

A building that became infamous as the site of multiple horror executions of gay men and those suspected of being gay by Isis in Iraq is thankfully no more.

Before the occupation by Islamic militants of the city of Mosul, the seven-storey Chadirji Building was the head office of Iraq’s National Insurance Company.

It was then used by the radical Isis group to murder dozens of terrified young men accused of homosexuality by throwing them off the roof.

Isis released numerous videos and photos of the cold-blooded killings in which the usually blindfolded individuals were pushed to their death as people watched below.

Those who survived the fall were then finished off by the crowd who stoned the victims to death.

The videos not only served as a warning to “moral deviants” but also as a propaganda tool to frighten enemies and to attract recruits from around the world.

It’s believed that in some cases undercover Isis members set up ‘dates’ with gay men in order to lure, capture, torture and execute them.

Isis was finally pushed out of the city by the Iraqi army in July 2017 in heavy fighting that severely damaged the building. The destruction led the authorities to deem it unsuitable for preservation or restoration.

At least one resident of Mosul, Samira Ali, welcomed the building’s demolition, telling AFP that a garden or museum should be erected in its place.

“It’s a terrifying sight,” she said. “It reminds me of the death penalty Daesh [Isis] would mete out against innocent people by throwing them off the roof.”

Isis is a proponent of a radical interpretation of sharia religious law that includes penalties for “morality” crimes through beheading and stoning. In addition to the gay executions, there were also reports and images of the stoning of women convicted of adultery, and numerous accounts of people executed by Isis because of their religious or political affiliation.