Iraq refuses to commute hangings

Published on Friday 5 January 2007 00:43

IRAQ will press ahead with the executions of Saddam Hussein's half-brother and an ex-judge, despite the wave of controversy over the former dictator's hanging, an Iraqi government official said yesterday.

There were reports that Barzan al-Tikriti, Saddam's half-brother and the former intelligence boss, and former judge Awad al-Bander would be executed yesterday, but officials said no date had been set for them to face the death penalty.

An investigation continues after unofficial video footage was released showing Saddam being taunted in the execution chamber. Meanwhile two guards and an official were said to have been placed under arrest.

There has been international condemnation of the way the death sentence was carried out and Ban Ki-moon the United Nations' new secretary general, backed calls for Iraq not to execute the two men, who were sentenced to death for the killing of 148 Shiites.

Louise Arbour, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, also expressed concerns about the fairness of their trial and their opportunity to appeal or seek a pardon.

But Sami al-Askari, a senior Iraqi official, said according to the law the death sentence could not be overturned .

"Nobody can stop the carrying out of court verdicts. The court's statute does not allow even the president of the republic or the prime minister to commute sentences, let alone grant a pardon," he said.

"Therefore, no pressure can stop the executions."

The video of Saddam's execution, which shows observers yelling "Go to hell" and chanting the name of a Shiite cleric and militia leader before Saddam falls through the trapdoor, has inflamed sectarian passions in a country already on the brink of sectarian civil war.

His treatment and the calm way he went to his death have been credited with helping to turn him into a martyr figure, and yesterday Libya said it would raise a statue of Saddam.

Libya declared three days of mourning after Saddam's death and cancelled public celebrations around the Eid religious holiday.

On the eve of Saddam's hanging, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan leader, said the former Iraqi president was a prisoner of war who must be tried by Iraq's invaders, the United States and Britain.

And Philip Alston, a law professor at New York University and independent expert with the UN Human Rights Council, said Saddam's trial and execution showed that Iraq had failed to move on from the era of injustice it endured under his rule.

The legal proceedings "were tragically missed opportunities to demonstrate that justice can be done, even in the case of one of the greatest crooks of our time", he said, adding that it had been "documented very clearly" that Saddam had been denied a fair hearing during his trial.

Meanwhile, Ofcom, the telecoms regulator, said it was looking into about 30 complaints from TV viewers upset by broadcasters showing excerpts of the mobile phone footage of Saddam's execution.

Although neither Sky, ITV, Channel Four News nor the BBC showed the actual moment of Saddam's death, reports variously featured either sound or pictures of people in the execution room taunting the former president.

Most of the complaints relate to excerpts from the mobile phone footage shown on BBC1 bulletins.