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Iraq confirms death sentence on former Saddam aide
Taha Yassin Ramadan
15.3.2007 |
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March 15, 2007
BAGHDAD, -- An Iraqi appeals court Thursday
confirmed the death sentence on Taha Yassin Ramadan,
former vice president to executed dictator Saddam
Hussein, for crimes against humanity.
Ramadan, who was born in 1938, is likely to be
hanged by the end of this month, a senior Iraqi
official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
He was sentenced on
February 12 by the Iraqi High Tribunal, which is
trying former regime officials, for his role in the
slaughter of 148 Shiites from the town of Dujail in
the 1980s.
His sentence was automatically reviewed by the
appeals panel, which confirmed the execution by
hanging.
"Yesterday, all the nine members of the appeals
court ratified the death sentence on Taha Yassin
Ramadan," Judge Munir Haddad of the appeals panel
told a press conference. |
Taha Yassin Ramadan,
Former Saddam Hussein's vice president |
"He can be hanged at any moment but the official
period is that the sentence be carried out within 30
days of it being confirmed by the appeals court."
The former vice president was originally given a
life sentence over the Dujail killings, which
followed a 1982 attempt on Saddam's life in the
town.
But the prosecution filed a petition demanding he
too be executed.
Saddam and two other former aides, Barzan Ibrahim
al-Tikriti and Awad Ahmed al-Bandar, have gone to
the gallows after being convicted of crimes against
humanity linked to the Dujail killings.
The former dictator was executed on December 30
while Barzan and Bandar were hanged on January 15.
US-based Human Rights Watch has urged Iraq not to
carry out the death penalty on Ramadan because it
said there was insufficient evidence linking him to
the murders.
"Ramadan was convicted in an unfair trial and
increasing his punishment from life imprisonment to
death reeks of vengeance," said Richard Dicker of
the organisation's International Justice Programme
in a statement last month.
But the senior Iraqi official denied this.
"There is no revenge in the execution of Ramadan or
the other former regime officials," he said.
"The crimes of these people have rendered thousands
of women as widows. Their executions are gift to
millions of Iraqis who suffered under Saddam."
Despite a global outrage against the executions,
Iraqi leaders including Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki
have expressed determination to punish former regime
officials.
Ramadan was captured by Kurdish fighters in Mosul,
northern Iraq, in August 2003 and turned over to US
forces.
In 1970, Ramadan formed the "Popular Army", the
Baath Party's armed wing, and was a member of the
Revolutionary Command, the country's highest
authority under Saddam.
The Popular Army is alleged to have arrested
suspects and delivered them to Iraqi security and
intelligence services following the failed
assassination attempt against Saddam in Dujail in
1982.
Following that attack, 148 villagers were arrested
and never seen again.
AFP
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