PM wants Saddam dead - soon
2006-10-18 20:38
Najaf - Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri
al-Maliki said on Wednesday he hoped legal proceedings against
former president Saddam Hussein would be short and that he would
be found guilty and sentenced to death soon.
The Shi'ite prime minister's comments come just one month
after his government sacked the chief judge trying Saddam on
genocide charges, saying he had sacrificed his neutrality by
stating the ousted leader was not a dictator.
That prompted criticism by some international legal rights
groups, who have said government pressure and sectarian violence
in Iraq make a fair trial of Saddam impossible.
Maliki met Moqtada al-Sadr on Wednesday in the holy city of
Najaf and held a joint news conference afterwards with the
powerful Shi'ite cleric who heads the Mehdi Army militia and
whose followers are in the government.
Asked about Saddam's trials, Maliki said: "God willing the
trial will not last a long time. God willing the death sentence
verdict will be issued soon against the tyrant Saddam and his
followers."
A verdict is expected as early as November 5 in the first case
brought against Saddam, which relates to killings in the Shi'ite
village of Dujail in the 1980s. The chief judge in that trial
quit in protest against government interference.
Anfal campaign
A second trial is in progress against Saddam and his cousin
Ali Hassan al-Majeed, known as "Chemical Ali", and five others
for war crimes and crimes against humanity for their role in the
1988 Anfal campaign against ethnic Kurds.
Saddam and Majeed also face the graver charge of genocide.
All could be hanged if convicted.
Both trials have examined crimes against Shi'ites and Kurds,
long oppressed under Saddam's Sunni-led rule, but empowered after
his fall, leading to international concerns about political
score-settling and interference.
Maliki, whose Shi'ite-dominated government is battling to
keep the lid on increasingly bloody sectarian violence, said
executing Saddam would help Iraq.
"Definitely with the execution of Saddam and the criminals
with him, those who are laying their bets on coming back to
power under the banner of Saddam will find their gamble fails,"
he said at the news conference.
Though the verdict in the first trial could come as soon as
November 5, any execution could be delayed by appeals and by the up
to a dozen other cases the toppled leader could face.
The genocide trial continued on Wednesday with testimony
from two Kurdish witnesses who described their villages being
bombed by the army and how they were transferred to detention
centres and saw prisoners shot in the head.
- Reuters