Wednesday, December 27, 2006
Saddam to be hanged within 30 days
Saddam Hussein
Iraq's highest court rejected Saddam Hussein's appeal Tuesday and said the former dictator must be hanged within 30 days for ordering the killing of scores of Shiite Muslims in 1982. The sentence has already stoked Iraq's sectarian rage, with the Shiite majority demanding Saddam's death and his fellow Sunni Arabs calling the trial tainted. In upholding the sentence, imposed Nov. 5, the Supreme Court of Appeals also affirmed death sentences for two of his co-defendants, including his half brother. And it said life imprisonment for a third was too lenient and demanded he be given the death penalty, too.
Some international legal observers, however, called Saddam's trial unfair because of alleged interference by the Shiite-dominated government. But the announcement delighted Shiites, who endured persecution under Saddam and are eager to remove a symbol of the old regime. Some Shiites are concerned that insurgents, many of them Sunni Arabs, will try to disrupt or prevent the execution. Under Iraqi law, the appeals court decision must be ratified by President Jalal Talabani and Iraq's two vice presidents. One of the two deputies is, like Saddam, a Sunni Arab.
Talabani, a Kurd, has said he is opposed to the death penalty. But he previously deputized Vice President Adil Abdul-Mahdi, a Shiite Muslim, to sign execution orders on his behalf. Abdul-Mahdi has said he would sign a death warrant for Saddam. The Sunni vice president, Tariq Al-Hashimi, has also pledged to support Saddam's execution as part of a deal that gave him the job last April 22, witnesses at the meeting told The Associated Press in October. Raed Juhi, a spokesman for the High Tribunal court that convicted Saddam, said the judicial system would ensure Saddam is executed even if the presidency does not ratify the decision.
Talabani, a Kurd, has said he is opposed to the death penalty. But he previously deputized Vice President Adil Abdul-Mahdi, a Shiite Muslim, to sign execution orders on his behalf. Abdul-Mahdi has said he would sign a death warrant for Saddam. The Sunni vice president, Tariq Al-Hashimi, has also pledged to support Saddam's execution as part of a deal that gave him the job last April 22, witnesses at the meeting told The Associated Press in October. Raed Juhi, a spokesman for the High Tribunal court that convicted Saddam, said the judicial system would ensure Saddam is executed even if the presidency does not ratify the decision.
Human Rights Watch, an international rights group, said figures in the U.S.-backed Iraqi government had undermined the credibility of Saddam's trial. Those officials publicly criticized a judge early in the case, leading to his resignation. The rights group also cited other "political interference." Saddam's televised trial was watched throughout Iraq and the Middle East as much for theater as for substance. The fallen dictator was ejected from the courtroom repeatedly for political harangues, and his half brother once showed up in long underwear and sat with his back to the judges. Three defense lawyers and a witness were murdered during the course of its 39 sessions. Saddam is currently in the midst of another trial, charged with genocide and other crimes during a 1987-88 military crackdown on Kurds in northern Iraq.
