Saddam may not hang within month: Iraqi officials 28.12.2006

A deputy justice minister told Reuters his department would not carry out the sentence for at least a month. The chief court spokesman said there was a "misunderstanding" on the statute and said Saddam might not hang until February or later.

Only if Iraq's three-man Presidency Council issues a decree ordering the execution sooner would the Justice Ministry execute the ousted leader before Jan. 26, the court's Raed Jouhi told Reuters. If there were no decree, he would be hanged any time after that, at a date to be set by the Justice Ministry.

"The Justice Ministry will not implement it before one full month is up," Deputy Justice Minister Bosho Ibrahim, from the Kurdish minority, said when asked about a tribunal statute which states that the punishment must be carried out within 30 days of the date when the judgment becomes "final and non-appealable".

Political considerations and conflicting interpretations of the rules of the U.S.-sponsored court have been a feature of the process since Saddam and his aides went on trial 14 months ago.

POLITICAL ISSUE

Analysts say the Shi'ite-led coalition government appears divided over the impending execution, which has angered some in Saddam's rebellious Sunni minority and may disappoint many Kurds who want to see him also convicted of genocide against them.

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, from the dominant Shi'ite majority, has previously said the former president should die this year for killings, torture and other actions against the Shi'ite population of the town of Dujail in the 1980s.

But analysts say some in government, and Washington, may be concerned that the execution should not not hamper efforts to draw members of Saddam's banned Baath party into national reconciliation talks in the coming weeks that aim to avert all-out civil war.

Many Kurds also want to see Saddam convicted of genocide in a trial that resumes on Jan. 8. Under Iraq's Saddam-era penal code, no execution should take place during religious holidays. A public holiday for Eid al-Adha runs from Thursday to Jan. 6.

President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, has refused personally to sign death warrants in other cases but has delegated his powers to his Shi'ite and Sunni vice presidents. In any event, both the constitution and High Tribunal statutes deny the presidency the power to block executions ordered for such serious crimes.

Tribunal spokesman Jouhi said: "There are two options.

"In death sentences issued by our court, if there is a presidential decree within 30 days, then they can carry it out at any time. But if there is no decree, then after these 30 days it becomes obligatory in any case and it will be up to the Justice Ministry to decide when it wants to carry it out."

Asked if that could be after 30 days, on Jan. 26, or later than that, for example in February, he said: "Yes, any time."

On Tuesday, appeals court head Aref Abdul-Razzaq al-Shahin announced the failure of Saddam's appeal against the Nov. 5 verdict and sentence and said the government had "the right to choose the date starting from tomorrow up to 30 days".

"After 30 days, it will be an obligation to implement the sentence," Shahin told a news conference.

Ibrahim said on Thursday: "The Justice Ministry is going to carry out the execution. It does not need the signature of the president. After one full month the Justice Ministry can decide when it will carry out the execution."

Reuters 

Top