Amnesty International says 1,000 prisoners now on Iraqi death row

(CNN) - At least 1,000 prisoners are on death row in Iraq, which now has one of the highest rates of execution in the world, the human rights group Amnesty International says in a report being released Tuesday.

The courts that sentence people to death do not meet international standards, and executions are often carried out in secret, the report charges. It says defendants complain of confessions extracted under torture.

The group criticizes the Central Criminal Court of Iraq and the Supreme Iraqi Criminal Tribunal, which issue the majority of death sentences in the country.

But Iraq's Justice Minister Dara Noor al-Deen Bahaa al-Deen, who said he says he is in favor of abolishing the death penalty, defended the Iraqi justice system, saying it is fair. "I am certain and reassured that ... any defendant, no matter what the sentence is, receives a fair trial and is given enough time for his testimony," he said.