Iraq has executed seven computer experts after they imported a computer system that was wired up to send data to the United States, AFP quoted an Iraqi opposition group as saying on Friday.
"In mid-July, the seven employees were executed after facing a sham trial and being charged with treason," said the exiled Iraqi Communist Party, in a statement.
It said the system was bought more than six months ago after an inspection team was sent out by the Iraqi government's Central Computers Department to conclude the deal.
The group said the system was designed for Baghdad's intelligence and security agencies.
But President Saddam Hussein later received information "that these computers contained special transmitters which send out data to the United State."
The director-general of the computers department was among those executed, the group said.
There was no independent confirmation of the report.
Iraq, under sanctions since its 1990 invasion of Kuwait and lagging far behind the IT revolution, opened its first Internet center for the public on July 27th, while ministries and government departments have been hooked up to the web – (AFP)
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