MANAGUA,-- US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld
opposed prolonging legal proceedings against Saddam
Hussein with new trials on additional charges
against the former Iraqi ruler.
"It would be appropriate to conclude it and sentence
him to whatever sentence they decide to give him,"
Rumsfeld told reporters here, adding that he was not
speaking for the US government.
He said some in Iraq want to try Saddam sequentially
for different crimes so that there can be a 'public
venting.'
"I don't know if that is going to be the case, but
were it to be the case it would not be close to
wrapping up, which would be unfortunate," he said.
Cutting off the legal proceedings after Saddam's
current trial on genocide charges stemming from a
1987-88 campaign against the Kurds "would be a
positive not a negative."
"It would just bring closure to a chapter that was
unhappy and unpleasant and particularly vicious
regime," he said. |
U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld
Former dictator Saddam Hussein
Photo : AFP |
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