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Security boost for Saddam verdict

Iraqi army soldiers guard blindfolded suspects in Baquba on 28 October
Insurgent attacks have been on the rise
All military leave has been cancelled in Iraq as part of increased security ahead of Sunday's expected verdict against Saddam Hussein.

Other measures will include a curfew on Baghdad, Diyala and Salahuddin provinces, a senior official said.

Saddam supporters have threatened more violence if he is sentenced to death.

"Does anyone really believe he will get a not-guilty verdict or just a life sentence in prison?," said one of his lawyers, Najeen al-Nuaimi.

The verdict comes amid increased violence - 83 bodies, some showing signs of torture, were found in Baghdad alone in the past 36 hours.

Saddam Hussein and co-defendants are accused of ordering the deaths of 148 Shias in 1982 in the village of Dujail, following an assassination attempt on the former president.

Reaction 'not surprising'

Baghdad residents said there were no extra security measures in force on Saturday.

Iraq's National Security Adviser Muwaffaq al-Rubaie told reporters that the curfews would come into force on Sunday.

More "security measures are under consideration," he said without specifying.

The government of Iraq will impose curfew on Baghdad, Diyala and Salahuddin provinces
Muwaffaq al-Rubaie
Iraq's National Security Adviser

A violent reaction would not be surprising in Saddam Hussein's home province of Salahuddin, north of Baghdad, nor in Anbar to the west of the capital, says the BBC's Hugh Sykes in Baghdad.

Many of his former police, senior army officers and Baath Party officials lived in the two main towns there - Falluja and the provincial capital Ramadi.

But elsewhere, there may be celebrations as there were when Saddam Hussein's sons, Uday and Husay were killed, our correspondent says.

Mr Nuaimi - a member of Saddam Hussein's defence team - told al-Jazeera television that the overall atmosphere and the military measures being taken suggested a death sentence was about to be passed.

"You can judge a book by its cover," he said.

Mr Nuaimi said they would appeal against the verdict, but "to a committee that is unfortunately composed of members of the same committee that is currently trying the president".

"We know what is going to happen with us, but we will appeal against the verdict, although it will not change and will be carried out."

The verdict is due to come two days before mid-term elections in the US - where Iraq has been a hot topic.

More than 100 US troops were killed in October - the fourth deadliest month for US troops since the US-led invasion in 2003.

Recent days have seen a number of public disagreements between US and Iraqi officials about attempts to improve security.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki has faced pressure to deliver on security, and take tougher action against sectarian militias.

He has blamed the Americans for the deteriorating situation, criticising the quality of equipment and training given to the Iraqi government forces.


BBC

SADDAM SENTENCED TO DEATH

SADDAM Hussein has been sentenced to death by hanging in Iraq after being found guilty of crimes against humanity.

The former dictator was visibly shaken and shouted out "God is great" as the court passed its verdict this morning.

Eight defendents, including the former Iraqi leader, were facing trial on charges relating to the killing of 148 Shias in the village of Dujail in 1982 after a failed assassination attempt on Saddam.

A curfew was introduced into Baghdad ahead of the verdicts, in anticipation of increased violence in response to the decision. Sundaymirror

Bush gives his verdict
Bush: Measure Of Justice


US President George Bush has hailed the sentencing of Saddam Hussein to death as a measure of justice for his victims.

He said the verdict was a milestone in the Iraqi people's efforts to replace the rule of a tyrant with the rule of law.

"It's a major achievement for Iraq's young democracy and its constitutional government," he told reporters in Waco as he pursued his campaign trail for the midterm elections.

He went on: "During Saddam Hussein's trial, the court received evidence from 130 witnesses.

"The man who once struck fear in the hearts of Iraqis had to listen to free Iraqis recount the acts of torture and murder that he ordered against their families and against them.

"Today, the victims of this regime have received a measure of the justice which many thought would never come."

He said Saddam had an automatic right to appeal and he would continue to receive the due process that he had denied the Iraqi people.

:: Reaction to the former dictator's guilty verdict and death penalty has varied throughout the world:

"The Islamic Republic of Iran, remembering the inhuman crimes of Saddam and his allies against the Iraqi, Iranian and Kuwaiti nations, and the necessity of preserving the rights of these nations, welcomes the verdict." - Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Mohammad Alihosseini.

"The EU opposes capital punishment in all cases and under all circumstances, and it should not be carried out in this case either." - Finland, as current president of the EU.

"For me, to punish a crime with another crime, which killing for revenge is, means that we are still at the state of 'eye for an eye', tooth for a tooth. Capital punishment is not a natural death. God gave us life and only God can take it away." - Cardinal Renato Martino, Pope Benedict XVI's top cardinal for justice issues.

"A death sentence will apparently split Iraqi society even further. On the other hand, it seems to me that the death sentence against Saddam Hussein will probably not be carried out. It will be stopped one way or another, either by the president of Iraq or by other means. It is most of all a moral decision - retribution that modern Iraq is taking against Saddam's regime" - Kremlin official, Konstantin Kosachyov.

"The hanging of Saddam Hussein will turn to hell for the Americans" - Vitaya Wisethrat, a respected Muslim cleric in Thailand.

"This is justice from heaven. He should have been hanged a long time ago. This is the smallest punishment for someone who executed tens of thousands of people" - Abdul-Ridha Aseeri, who heads the political science department at Kuwait University.

"This is not the way to present the new Iraq to the world, which is different from Saddam, who was behind hundreds of thousands of deaths as well as death penalty sentences." - Hands Off Cain, an Italian organisation working to rid the world of capital punishment.
Skynews

Robert Fisk: This was a guilty verdict on America as well.

independent

Robert Fisk sometimes seems like a voice crying in the wildnesness.

I will be in that wildeness too, as much and all as I detest Saddam, I will be very saddened when he is 'executed', because the only way in which I can ever think that it could be permissable to kill another human being, is in immediate self-defence.

I have always felt like that. At times, I've wished I could personally 'do away with' someone - I can think of instances of the cold and calculating murder of innocent people whom I knew - but I don't believe it would ever be 'right'.

I can imagine I'll be in the minority when it comes to Saddam. It's understandable.

But my opinion is that no-one has the right to determine whether or not another human being should live or die. Life is not ours to take.

And on a practical level - poor George W Bush - he always sees thinks in such simple terms, doesn't he?

'Shucks, that Hilter guy, how did he happen, didn't the Allies take care of that German problem, after World War I?'${

Robert Fisk sometimes seems like a voice crying in the wildnesness.
Not in my house, gerbilgranny. I have a family member who comes from Irag and has seen the most horrible crimes commited by the old regime and knows all about the US and British support they got in the training of their security forces, and the arms that helped him commit many of the crimes he is charged with.
Of course Saddam has to pay a price for the evil he carried out but I think him being sent to prison where he would meet more of the daily hell he put so many through is the only end we should endores for him.

U.K.’s Blair opposes death penalty for Saddam msnbc

Nov 7, 2006

Syrians urge caution over verdict

Authoritarian Arab rulers should take heed from the verdict against Saddam Hussein and start respecting human rights in their own countries, political prisoners in Syria said from their jail on Monday.

Although putting Saddam on trial was a precedent, three prominent Syrian prisoners urged the US-backed Iraqi government not to execute the former Iraqi leader, saying they were opposed to the death penalty.

"This was the first time that an Arab people have held their leaders accountable for crimes against them," Anwar al-Bunni told Reuters by telephone from the Adra prison on the outskirts of Damascus.

"This may be their last chance. They may want to reconsider their policies and start observing human rights," Bunni said.

Syria has been under pressure from the West to improve its treatment of human rights and end a clampdown on dissent, which increased this year as the government faced tensions over its role in Lebanon. The Baath Party has controlled the political system since 1963.

Human rights organisations have called for the release or independent trials for hundreds of political prisoners still in jail, far less than the number six years ago when President Bashar al-Assad succeeded his late father.

TVNZ

Iran welcomes Saddam death sentence

TEHRAN - Iran welcomes the death sentence handed down by an Iraqi tribunal to former president Saddam Hussein, the foreign ministry spokesman told AFP.
"The Islamic republic of Iran welcomes the death sentence," said Mohammad Ali Hosseini.

But he added: "Even if Saddam and his accomplices are the agents who carried out these crimes, we cannot forget the Western protectors of Saddam who by supporting him prepared the ground for the execution of his crimes."

TurkishPress

NOOSE ON IRAQ

The verdict of death sentence delivered upon Saddam Hussein needs to be separated from the rights and wrongs of the American invasion of Iraq. Hussein is an evil man who has on his hands the blood of hundreds of thousands of innocent Kurds and Shias. He can claim his place next to Josef Stalin, Adolf Hitler and Idi Amin in the 20th century gallery of mass murderers. Hussein, when he ruled Iraq, believed that he was the state and his every whim was law. In fact, he asserted in his defence that whatever he perceived as a threat he destroyed in the manner he thought was best, without recourse to the niceties of law. Very few will regret the fact that such a man has been condemned to death, and the fact that he will not be permitted to have the honour of facing a firing squad. The death sentence was a fait accompli. The day the American military forces discovered the tyrant in his hideout and arrested him, Hussein was a dead man. Yet, there was a trial.

The process of trying Hussein, however inadequate that process may have been, distinguishes the regime that Hussein led and the present dispensation under the auspices of a conquering army. Hussein did not believe in trying his enemies. But since the Nuremberg trials, held after World War II to try leading Nazis, there is a tradition in the West to make mass murderers and tyrants face a legal process. There can be no doubt that such courts represent victors’ justice. But the accused are at least allowed to make statements defending themselves. Hussein did not allow any accused such a luxury. It is also important to underline the context of the trial and its constraints. The trial was conducted in a war zone. The regime conducting the trial is struggling to establish itself as a democracy. The judicial system was thus a fledgling one: judges were moved and lawyers killed. These were not the ideal condition for holding a proper trial based on the rule of law. The execution of Hussein, when it takes place, will be the first step towards establishing the rule of law in Iraq. Iraq will finally and hopefully be rid of its tyrannical past. Iraq’s present has other ghosts stalking it: the ghost of a misplaced invasion that ruined the country. It will be interesting to see if a military invasion can leave in its aftermath a thriving democracy. The people of Iraq have given the United States of America a long enough rope. Something more useful than Saddam Hussein’s corpse must dangle at the end of it.

Telegraph India

Had a long discussion about this on another forum ..

Personaly I say lock him up for life, theres been too much killing already

Also we dont want to make a saint out of this vile creature[/code]

That's it Blagman.

Iraq's PM expects Saddam hanging this year
09 November 2006

BAGHDAD: Iraq's Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki expects Saddam Hussein to be hanged before the end of the year, despite an appeal process legal experts have said could keep the toppled leader from the gallows for months.

A day after Americans punished President George W Bush's Republicans by handing Democrats control of the House of Representatives in mid-term elections seen as a referendum on the war, Saddam was back in court on Wednesday to face genocide charges in a separate trial.

Saddam, ousted in a US-led invasion in 2003, was sentenced on Sunday by an Iraqi court to hang for crimes against humanity for the killings and torture of hundreds of Shi'ites.

Maliki, whose comments in the past that Saddam's execution could not come soon enough have drawn criticism of government pressure, told the BBC he hoped Saddam would meet this fate within two months.

"We are waiting for the decision of the appeals court," he said. "If it confirms the sentence it will be the government's responsibility to carry it out. We would like the whole world to respect Iraq's judicial will. . .. I expect the execution to happen before the end of this year."

Under the court's statutes, defence and prosecution have 30 days to lodge submissions with the appeal chamber after the verdict is made public.

The appellate chamber, which can overturn the verdict or change the sentence, has to go through thousands of pages of evidence, a process legal experts and officials close to the court say could take months. Any execution would have to be carried out within 30 days of all appeals being exhausted.

Saddam's lawyers, who have dismissed the verdict as "victors' justice", have said he will be executed.

Stuff.co.NZ