'Don't hang Saddam Hussein'

2006-12-29 16:34

Madrid - Spain's prime minister on Friday joined other prominent European Union figures who have expressed opposition on principle to the hanging of Saddam Hussein.

"All dictators must answer for their crimes, but I cannot support this kind of punishment, I am against the death penalty," Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero told a press conference.

The European countries have condemned Saddam's crimes but the EU itself has banned the death penalty.

The Finnish EU presidency on Friday reaffirmed its opposition to Saddam's execution.

"The EU opposes the death penalty and it should not be applied in this case either," Finnish Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja said in Helsinki.

Finland is due to hand over the EU presidency to Germany on January 1.

In Paris, French far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen on Friday blasted the impending execution of Saddam Hussein, saying it was a "despicable" sentence for the vanquished Iraqi leader.

"President Saddam Hussein is not a gangster, a bank robber or a chicken thief - he's a head of state who was toppled by a foreign military," Le Pen wrote on his blog.

He called the capital punishment decided for Saddam a "low political manoeuvre... (that) probably aims to eliminate a head of state with whom the West dealt for years".

Meanwhile, Reuters reported that a defence lawyer for Saddam Hussein said on Friday be believed the ousted president will be executed on Saturday.

"The Americans called the defence team to pick up his personal belongings. All these indications show he will probably be executed tomorrow," Najib Naimi, a former Qatar justice minister, told al Jazeera in English.

Naimi was referring to comments made earlier by chief defence lawyer Khalil al-Dulaimi, who told Reuters the US military had called him and asked him to pick up Saddam's personal effects.

- AFP