An Iraqi court on Thursday sentenced 40 men to death over the June 2014 massacre by jihadists and allied militants of hundreds of military recruits in Tikrit, a statement said.

The central criminal court in Baghdad found 40 of 47 defendants guilty of involvement in the "Speicher" massacre, named after the base near where the victims were captured before being executed, the spokesman for Iraq's judiciary, Abdel Sattar Bayraqdar, said in the statement.