ICTJ in the News

December 27, 2006

Court: Hang Hussein in 30 days; 'From tomorrow, any day could be the day'

Lexington Herald Reader

An Iraqi appeals court upheld the death sentence against Saddam Hussein yesterday and ruled that the man whose brutal reign began in 1979 and ended with the American-led invasion in 2003 must go to the gallows within 30 days.

"From tomorrow, any day could be the day" Hussein is sent to the gallows, the chief judge said.

It was the court of last resort for Hussein, who received his death sentence on Nov. 5 from the Iraqi High Tribunal, a court set up specifically to pass judgment on his years in power. No further appeals are possible, and his final legal recourse appears to be a clause in the Iraqi constitution stating that the Iraqi president must approve all death sentences.

That constitutional nicety offers Hussein only the slenderest of hopes. Jalal Talabani, the Iraqi president, has said that he is formally against the death penalty, but he has permitted the hangings of many Iraqis convicted of capital crimes. The constitution might also be trumped by an article in the charter of the tribunal stating that its sentences may be commuted by no one, not even the president.

It remains unclear whether a hanging would be carried out at a pre-announced time, with public observers present. Among several proposals is one that calls for Hussein to be executed in secret as early as next week.

His body would then be formally identified by independent observers and the death revealed to the Iraqi public and the rest of the world, according to an official familiar with the proposal. The goal of such an approach would be to reduce retaliatory attacks by Sunnis and other loyalists.

The appeals verdict, covering one case involving the execution of 148 men and boys in the northern town of Dujail in 1982, came even as Hussein was facing trial on charges that he ordered the killing of tens of thousands of Kurds, whose bodies have in some instances been exhumed from grisly mass graves and minutely described in the courtroom.

The decision of the nine-judge appeals court was announced on short notice by the chief judge, Aref Shahin.

The judge left no doubt about where he stood on the issue of constitutional approval of the court's decision. "Nobody is entitled, including the president, to exempt or commute the verdict issued by this court," he said.

"The punishment is mandatory and should be executed within 30 days from the date it was issued," he said.

Hiwa Osman, a media adviser for Talabani, said shortly after the verdict that the president's office was still studying the decision and had not yet come to a conclusion on whether approval was needed.

"It's a bit too early for us to judge, because we are digesting all this new information," Osman said. "We will wait for the case to come to us through the proper channels as decided by the court."

Reaction to the appeals court verdict appeared to be muted in neighborhoods across Iraq that were occupied with far more immediate concerns. In Kirkuk, where Kurdish and Shiite neighborhoods celebrated the Nov. 5 verdict against Hussein while Sunni areas protested, the streets were quiet, residents said.

In the heavily Shiite southern city of Basra, police fanned out across city streets but largely withdrew when little reaction materialized.

The ruling was criticized by some groups, including Human Rights Watch, which said that it "was imposed after a deeply flawed trial" and recommended that the decision to execute Hussein should be reversed.

A similar view was expressed by Miranda Sissons, head of the Iraq program at the International Center for Transitional Justice in New York, who said that the haste of the appeals court's decision indicates that it could not have been thoroughly considered.

"This judgment is not surprising, but the speed is very troubling," Sissons said. The verdict in the Dujail case "deserved a careful review process, but the signs today are that that hasn't happened," she said.

In upholding the Hussein sentence, the Supreme Court of Appeals also affirmed death sentences for two of his co-defendants, including his half brother. And it said life imprisonment for a third was too lenient and demanded he be given the death penalty, too.

The White House called the ruling a milestone in Iraq's efforts "to replace the rule of a tyrant with the rule of law."

"Saddam Hussein has received due process and legal rights that he denied the Iraqi people for so long. So this is an important day for the Iraqi people," said deputy White House press secretary Scott Stanzel, Air Force One flying from Washington to Waco, Texas.

Raed Juhi, a spokesman for the High Tribunal court that convicted Hussein, said the judicial system would ensure Hussein is executed even if the presidency does not ratify the decision.

Hussein is being held at Camp Cropper, an American military prison close to Baghdad's airport.

Shiite residents of Baghdad were delighted with the court's decision.

"We are very happy," said Riyah Abdul Sattar in Sadr City, a neighborhood where Shiite militias are strong. "We will get rid of him for sure."

The mood was different in Tikrit, a mostly Sunni Arab city north of Baghdad that lies near Hussein's hometown of Ouja.

"It is a political verdict that has no relation to law or justice," said Saad Ibrahim Khelil. "I do believe it's a kind of pressure against the (Sunni-led) resistance."

U.S. toll rises Seven more U.S. service members die in Iraq.