An Iraqi court on July 8 sentenced 24 men to death by hanging in connection with the June 2014 massacre by Islamic State (IS) militants of up to 1,700 Iraqi Air Force cadets on the outskirts of Tikrit.
Abdul-Sattar al-Birqdar, spokesman for Iraq's Supreme Judicial Council, said four suspects were acquitted.
The ruling by Baghdad’s Central Criminal Court is the first against 603 IS militants or allied militia fighters who have been accused of carrying out the massacre.
About 600 suspects in the mass killing are still sought by Iraqi authorities.
The mass killing is known as the Speicher massacre after the military academy in Salahuddin Province where the mostly Shi’ite Muslim victims were captured by IS militants.
The graves of the victims were exhumed in April after Iraqi government and allied forces retook Tikrit from IS militants.
