BAGHDAD (AFP) – Saddam Hussein and two top aides convicted with him will be executed immediately after an appeals court confirms their sentences and could be buried in secret, an Iraqi official has said.
A senior Iraqi government official said Tuesday he expected the judicial panel studying the ousted dictator’s appeal to confirm death sentences on Saddam, his half brother Barzan al-Tikriti and a former judge, Awad Ahmed al-Bandar.
“We are considering the possibility of executing the three, Saddam, Barzan and Bandar at one time on the same day,” the official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity because the court is supposed to be independent.
“We may bury Saddam at a secret location,” he said.
“His body may later be handed over to his relatives, as under Muslim rituals we can exhume the body after it is buried. But one thing the government will ensure is that there is no memorial built for Saddam anywhere in Iraq.”
Saddam was sentenced to death by hanging on November 5 for ordering the execution of 148 Shiites from the village of Dujail after he escaped an assassination bid there in 1982.
His half-brother and former intelligence chief Barzan was also sentenced to death, along with Bandar, chairman of the so-called Revolutionary Court which oversaw the Shiites’ executions.
Saddam’s former vice president Taha Yassin Ramadan received a life sentence, while three Baath party officials from Dujail received 15 years each and a fourth, more minor figure, was cleared.
The Iraqi official said the execution will be carried out soon after the nine-member appeals panel confirms their verdicts delivered by the Iraqi High Tribunal — the court trying the former regime officials.
“We will not waste time. We will look at the security situation and they will be executed immediately at the very first opportunity we get after the appeals chamber finalises the verdicts,” he said.
Last month Iraqi premier Nuri al-Maliki told BBC that Saddam could be executed by the end of this year but the official said “that is unlikely.”
“People may not believe but we are handling this case in a very democratic way and there is no interference from the government’s side in the working of the appeals chamber. It will take time,” affirmed the official.
Chief prosecutor Jaafar al-Mussawi said that the prosecution has also forwarded a demand to convert the life imprisonment of Ramadan into a death sentence.
“We have asked for Ramadan to be executed too,” Mussawi told AFP.
Mussawi said the appeal chamber was “deliberating the tribunal’s verdict.”
“The panel is studying the case in detail every day and if it upholds the verdicts it will be implemented by the justice ministry.”
Lawyers acting for Saddam and the other six convicted defendants have already submitted appeals against the sentences.
Those condemned to death or life in jail have an automatic right of appeal according to Iraq law.
Another top Iraqi government official Basam Ridha revealed that more than a hundred people have expressed their desire to be the hangman for executing Saddam.
Seems like Saddam will be getting the Pinochet treatment.
By: Gollevainen - 3rd January 2007 at 16:11
ugaah… Good thougths
But then again, if god speaks to you to go there and do some mayhem, then you gotta go, no disputing ones personal believe, eh;)
By: megalith - 3rd January 2007 at 15:58
What appalls me about this thread is that no seems to be able to sit back and take a hollistic view; although some views are considered.
Democracy is more than a system of government. It is certainly a process, it is also an ideal, in many parts of the world an asspiration and for us in the west even part of how we identify ourselves. However like everything else it is flawed (for the best exploration of democracy and its pitfalls read Thucydides’ History of the Peloponessian War).
There are many forms of Democracy both direct or represenataive; and many of the countries we consider democracies have failings (the UK is a
good example where the entire upper house is niether elected nor directly accountable to the electorate). Many in Europe (and I’m sure in the USA as well) consider George Bush’s first term election as president to be flawed, given the chaos in the counting, especially in Florida where his brother just happened to be governor.
Nor are we consistant in how we seek to export this idea, talking to local Muslims they are acutely aware that whilst we seek to impose democracy in Iraq, we also prop up one of the worlds most anti-democratic and arguably evil regimes in Saudi Arabia. Double standards? Further we diplomaticly ostracise groups such as Hamas that won fairly at the polls, beacuse we don’t like their political aims and involvement in armed struggle – NB. In the invasion of Iraq we have resorted to armed struggle to impose our world view, so do we have any right to criticise them for resorting to arms?
Sadam Hussain has long been a part of the west’s inconsistant foriegn policy, during the Iran/Iraq war we feted him, and helped him to build up his armoury. At this point please reflect that Iran was a democracy (even if a very deeply flawed and perhaps superficial one) and Iraq a dictatorship. We have all seen the film of the US ambassador, prior to his invasion of Kuwait, apparently implying that the US would not interfeer with his border dispute with Kuwait.
Quite frankly our middle east policy is a bl**dy mess, literally! You cannot gain a military victory, technology only gives you a marginal advantage in urban warfare, we couldn’t in Northern Ireland. It’s low level, dirty and attritionall. Sooner or later we will leave Iraq, much like the US left Vietnam or the UK withdrew from its Empire, there will then probably be civil war(s), government(s) will emerge and democracy may or may not develope from these developements.
But then this is exactly what would probably have happened if Sadam had keeled over from a heart attack.
Military action is attractive, perhaps even glamerous, to a certain type of personallity, these people from my experience will never understand that many things can be solved by diplomacy and compromise, and can seldom see or understnd another’s viewpoint. They believe might is right – they may be correct, but I believe they are short sighted and mistaken. Although that does not mean that military action is never needed, the liberation of Kuwait being a good example.
The other viewpoint was summed up by Gandhi who defeated the British in India without firing a shot and once said ‘I am totally oppossed to violence because the good it often appears to do is but short lived, but the harm it always does is permenant.’
Looking at the situation in Iraq, by executing Sadam, we have certainly deepened the division between Shia and Sunni in Iraq and that will make any solution harder to find, and the overall situation continues to worsen; read this link to see what we’ve really achieved http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6215005.stm.
Was Gandhi right? well his approach can’t be more flawed than the militarists.
Steve.
By: cypherus - 1st January 2007 at 12:08
Everone has answers.
Seems the issue of Iraq is just not going to go away is it, then it never was really and anyone that took up the idea that the problem of middle eastern tribal politics could ever be solved by invasion/assistance ect was at best misguided and at worst totally idiotic in political terms.
The execution of Saddam too was at this time a mistake of biblical proportions as it has left the way clearly open for those with agendas to rightly point out that the verdict was forced upon the people of Iraq by the US, in truth while I believe that Saddam should have been executed for crimes he committed, that verdict and even the court case should have been left up to the Iraqi peoples to enact on their own behalf at such time as they had the freedom to do so and then too compound the mistake by allowing his body to be buried in what will I am certain become a focus point for every radical with and axe to grind was unforgivable
As too the question of scores being compared on a before and after basis on the current death rate it would appear that the posters here are falling into the same trap the politicians did and trying to rationalise the behaviour of the Arab nations along Western lines and sensibilities, something that cannot be achieved as history has proven time and again. Their life values and ideals are far removed from those currently enjoyed by western nations, the tribal basis of their society will always prevail and sadly the murder will continue into whatever future Iraq chooses to form for itself after the US coalition looses interest and moves onto another act of the worlds ongoing political stage play, such is the nature of a society that is formed of peoples who’s basic nature is corrupted by the natural problems that beset the region and is then compounded by religious zealots that use people scant understanding of the teachings of the Muslim faith as a tool too further their own petty political agendas, such is life I believe and the only solution the western societies will have too turn too in the end to protect themselves will be containment and while my own western sensibilities will not allow me too agree with the solutions that Saddam choose too control his tribes, in the final accounting those same solutions will be all that is left to the world leaders………Who ever said this was a New Year.
By: Gollevainen - 30th December 2006 at 19:08
If someone kills a member of my family or a friend of mine in cold blood you can bet I want their @ss electrocuted or injected with poison or whatever else just so that they are dead and have to suffer the same fate as their victim
att least in the civiliced world, the idea of justice system pretty much bases on the fact that non in single case should the victims family&related have anything to do with the justice, verdict, sentence and punishment.
And what comes to death penalty, allowing it, you allow killing of people as a general rule and how would you then consider the frase that every law should be as biding that it would come general habbit;)
The parallels drawn between a man like this and George W. Bush or Tony Blair are equally ridiculous.
Perhaps there is logic behind that no one actually here believe….well perhaps you do…but anyway, belive that Bush nor Blair are naively innocent and knew or know nothing about the horrors that war and occupation brings along. Political leadership brings certain sort responsipility and people as high seats as Blair and Bush, certainly know what was comming when they decided to attack Iraq….
By: PhantomII - 30th December 2006 at 17:46
The idea that someone like Hussein would actually suffer while living out the rest of his life in prison is ludicrous. Someone like that isn’t similar to the rest of us in any way other than that he’s a human being (and I question just how human he really was). He would likely just sit in prison with no remorse for what he had done and likely with the feeling that somehow he got away with it and his only punishment is to sit in a jail for the rest of his life as opposed to being dead like so many of the people who’s lives he snuffed out over the years.
That’s the thing that really bothers me about people who oppose the death penalty. Just admit you think killing is wrong and leave it at that. Stop defending your point of view by saying you think someone who has murdered another person in cold blood will actually feel remorse or regret for what they have done. Even if on the odd chance if they do, why should they be allowed to live? It doesn’t make any sense to me. If someone kills a member of my family or a friend of mine in cold blood you can bet I want their @ss electrocuted or injected with poison or whatever else just so that they are dead and have to suffer the same fate as their victim. The bottom line is that when somebody murders another innocent person (such as a break-in on a home or a simple robbery gone awry), they should be made to pay for their actions and the way I see it, death is the only option.
The parallels drawn between a man like this and George W. Bush or Tony Blair are equally ridiculous. Neither of them has directly ordered the slaughter of thousands of innocent Iraqis. Whatever your politics are, if you actually believe that George W. Bush or Tony Blair actually told their respective armies to kill civilians or anyone who was non-threatening to American or British forces then you are deluding yourself.
Not agreeing with the war is one thing, but comparing Bush or Blair to Saddam is ridiculous…….especially if you are educated about the situation such as most people like this are. I can somewhat understand if the average low-income Iraqi might see them as all the same because they might not understand the true meaning as to what is going on, but someone on this forum? No excuse whatsoever.
I’m not saying you should agree with the war or like Bush or like Blair or whatever, I’m saying that you shouldn’t put them in the same boat with Saddam because they don’t even come close to him in that respect.
By: BuffPuff - 30th December 2006 at 15:05
Not sure the actual hanging i.e. Saddam falling through the trap door, was filmed. The immediate events leading up to and after this are on film and have been on the BBC and ITN this morning.
By: laviticus - 30th December 2006 at 13:20
I must admit i felt a little sick in my stomach when i saw the news of his execution .Quick it may have been and done in the utmost respect for a man who is going to meet his maker ,with no foreign persons present.But the thing was allegedly filmed ,how long before its all over the net and for it to be done on EID will this incite more violence .
By: heslop01 - 30th December 2006 at 11:19
Personally I don’t think execution was the right thing to do. He may of been a killer and murdered a lot of people but so have Blair and Bush in the Iraq war – most are innocent Iraqi civilians. If they locked Saddam Hussain away and made him suffer in prison then I think it would of been most effective than just killing him off. Also I don’t think any justice would of been served and I think that some people would see his death as a martyrdom in some sense and that it may encourage them to take a more radical view on what they already think.
Don’t get me wrong i’m not condemming or accepting his death but all-in-all I think that it’s a waist of time as his followers will see it as an act of martyrdom.
By: BuffPuff - 30th December 2006 at 08:43
Yay, go American kill kill kill!
Backlash alert……
By: Canpark - 30th December 2006 at 08:03
“May George W. Bush drink the blood of every single man, woman, and child of Iraq, and may you destroy their country so that for the next thousand years, not even a single lizard will survive in their desert”.- Borat
Yay, go American kill kill kill!
By: SOFTLAD - 30th December 2006 at 07:07
Yep apparently he hung at 03.00 uk time. Mabye things can move on now this cloud has been lifted from Iraq ?
By: BuffPuff - 30th December 2006 at 07:04
Damn, PII, you beat me to it!!!
Just heard the news myself 5 mins ago!!!!:eek:
By: PhantomII - 30th December 2006 at 04:15
Apparently he’s been hung as of about an hour ago.
Oh well.
Let’s just hope that any potential violence can be quelled.
By: duxfordhawk - 29th December 2006 at 18:55
Well looks like Saddam has been handed over from the US to the Iraqi authorities and could well have his neck stretched on Saturday….
I’m in two minds on this one. I have no sympathy for Saddam as such. However, his execution could be akin to trying to put out a camp fire with paraffin. I hope to god that this does not make things worse in Iraq for all concerned…..:(
I echo your fears about hanging Saddam and really fear this will lead to more people losing their lives, Maybe not just in Iraq, He has supporters and people who sympathise with him and with the Middle east already being such a powder keg and emotions high in general this could be a big mistsake, Yes he deserves to die, But i think he deserves to suffer for what he did too, Death is too quicker way for him.
By: BuffPuff - 29th December 2006 at 16:53
Well looks like Saddam has been handed over from the US to the Iraqi authorities and could well have his neck stretched on Saturday….
I’m in two minds on this one. I have no sympathy for Saddam as such. However, his execution could be akin to trying to put out a camp fire with paraffin. I hope to god that this does not make things worse in Iraq for all concerned…..:(
By: Ben. - 29th December 2006 at 13:58
Woooow, been some months, years maybe, since I last checked this site! Some people are getting dumber and dumber though 😀 Not that Saddam is any of my business, personally I don’t care wheter they execute him or not, but you have to be a complete moron to believe things will get better once we get rid of satan’s right hand.
By: Arthur - 24th December 2006 at 23:31
Arthur,
The point of the matter is that some of those who were most brutalized under Saddam’s regime are rather happy he’s gone. Whatever happens in the future, is it really so bad that they are happy he’s gone. Does it not please you to see some in Iraq that are happy with Saddam’s absence. Is your disdain for the American government such that it looking bad is more important than the happiness of those in Iraq who were freed?
Sure, let the Kurds be happy, and let every Iraqi be happy Saddam is gone. They now enjoy the freedom of actually fighting for their people for the first time in centuries! No longer fighting for that imaginary piece of real-estate called Iraq, but for an independent Kurdistan, and an independent Shia-Arabia! Now guess what: an independent Kurdistan in northern former-Iraq won’t do peace in Turkey any good, and a Shia-Arabia in oil-rich southern former-Iraq will give Ahmadinejad quite a bit of extra political leverage in the region.
Saddam is gone. Great. The question is how many people in the region can actually enjoy the removal, trial and eventual execution of this ruthless dictator. If you ask me, Saddam’s execution will only satisfy the bloodlust of anti-Saddamites who don’t have to struggle for their everyday life.
By: Gollevainen - 22nd December 2006 at 10:29
There is the political benefits from it, if nothing more than the repeated mantra of ‘iraqi’ way of doing it.
Whats the saddest of it, it not give a hammer against US goverment to these ‘elitist anti-death penalty crow’ but also to those who wants present themselves as somewhat civiliced Iraqi resistance.
I in other hand just belive in justice system thats main principles are ‘innocent before proven guilty’ and Strict no to barbaric death-penalties. Whats irritates me most is when someone who clearly deserves a verdict is trialled by something more akin to circuss than court. It takes good feelin, “yeah now that ****** gets what he deserved” away….
And to Sauron, I dont remember that Romania would have been occupaded by foreing power at that time….att least not by power that tryes to pose as vanguard of freedom, democracy and justice
well anyway, winners justice, winners justice….
By: Sauron - 22nd December 2006 at 05:52
Gollevainen asks
Wouldn’t therefore be lot mre creditable to the Rest of the world, (as your great nation likes to but it), that the trial was held in the Hague??
If you believe a court which took 5 years to bungle the last dictators trial would do better than a court which directly represents the actual victims, the answer is yes. If you have the interests of the Iraqis in mind, the answer is no. The elitist anti-death penalty crowd would love it though. They would make Saddam their poster boy for sure.
A recent report released in Romania is a reminder of the fate of another dictator who received his measure of justice in 1989. Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife were tried, found guilty and shot all within a couple of days. Swift justice Romanian style. 😉
Sauron
By: PhantomII - 22nd December 2006 at 05:25
Gollevein, do you actually pay attention to what you write?
You’re acting like his guilty verdict is something that should not have happened.
Whatever your opinion of the war, can you honestly say that you think Saddam Hussein is not guilty and should not pay for his crimes?
Arthur,
The point of the matter is that some of those who were most brutalized under Saddam’s regime are rather happy he’s gone. Whatever happens in the future, is it really so bad that they are happy he’s gone. Does it not please you to see some in Iraq that are happy with Saddam’s absence. Is your disdain for the American government such that it looking bad is more important than the happiness of those in Iraq who were freed?
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December 12, 2006 at 2:08 pm