|
CAIRO (AFP) - Iraq’s new president, Kurdish
leader Jalal Talabani, hinted in an interview
published Sunday that he opposed the idea of ousted
dictator Saddam Hussein being sentenced to death.
“I am among the lawyers who signed an international
petition against the death penalty in the world and
it would be problem for me if Iraqi courts issued
death sentences,” he told the pan-Arab Asharq al-Awsat
newspaper.
Talabani, who was sworn in as president Thursday,
was answering a question about the fate of Saddam,
who is in US custody in Iraq awaiting trial for war
crimes and crimes against humanity and could face
the death penalty.
The new head of state, who spent most of his life
fighting Saddam’s regime, stressed however that he
could not decide on a pardon individually if the
deposed president was sentenced to death.
“The issue of a possible pardon is the
responsibility of the presidential council and I
cannot make an individual decision,” he told the
London-based newspaper.
Kurds were among the communities who suffered the
most under the iron-fisted rule of Saddam. Among the
main charges facing him and his henchmen is the
brutal Anfal campaign against the Kurds carried out
in the 1980s.
However Talabani kicked off his tenure as the
war-torn country’s president on a conciliatory note,
porposing amnesty for insurgents in a bid to reach
political unity.
AFP
Top |
® 