ICTJ in the News

February 13, 2007

Iraqis taking precautions for next hanging

Los Angeles Times

By Tina Susman

BAGHDAD, Iraq - As Iraqi officials prepare to hang another of Saddam Hussein's former aides, they say they are determined to prevent the uproar that followed the last high-level execution, when the head of Saddam's half-brother ripped off and rolled across the death-chamber floor.

Rope widths and lengths are being reviewed to ensure the cord can properly hold Taha Yassin Ramadan, who was sentenced to death Monday for the slaughter of 148 Shiite Muslims in a small farming town in the 1980s. Government officials are building new gallows to accommodate different-size convicts, said Basam Ridha, an aide to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

"We're taking the extra precautionary steps, including creating two types of gallows: one for heavyset guys and another for normal folks and skinnier guys," said Ridha, who was in the courtroom when a judge ordered the execution of Ramadan, a former vice president.

It was Ramadan's second time hearing his fate, and Monday the news was far worse than on the first go-around. He was sentenced to life in prison after his conviction in November. But the appeals court, reflecting the bitterness toward the men who propped up Saddam's Sunni-led dictatorship, decided that life behind bars was not harsh enough.

Ramadan is expected to become the fourth person from Saddam's inner circle to die for the crimes in Dujail, a Shiite-dominated town north of Baghdad whose tortured history was symbolic of the hideous excesses of the former regime.

Ridha said the government owed it to Iraqis to do away with Ramadan and others associated with Saddam. "We need to execute the bad guys," Ridha said. "A lot of our widows and children suffered a lot from these people. We need to put an end to this era."

International human-rights groups criticized the decision, arguing that evidence against Ramadan didn't prove complicity in murder. The victims, all men and boys, were killed after a July 1982 assassination attempt against Saddam during a presidential visit to Dujail.

"We're sad because this appears to be a political act, not a judicial one," said Miranda Sissons, deputy Mideast director of the New York-based International Center for Transitional Justice, who attended Monday's hearing. The center, and the New York group Human Rights Watch, said Ramadan's murder conviction was based on inferences drawn from his close association with Saddam and his command of a militia that rounded up victims and delivered them to their fate.

One of Ramadan's defense attorneys, Ziad Kasawna, denounced the ruling as a political decision orchestrated by the United States. "We are certain the decision has been made to hang all the leaders linked to Saddam," he said.

The case will be automatically appealed, but Kasawna said he already knew the outcome. "There is no hope, unless there is a divine intervention," he said.

Ramadan, who is in his 60s, stood as the judge announced the sentence.

"Oh my God, I swear I am innocent," he said loudly but calmly after hearing his fate.

Ridha predicted Ramadan would be executed within weeks.

Saddam was hanged Dec. 30, and two other defendants were hanged Jan. 15, including Saddam's half-brother Barzan Ibrahim Hasan. Those executions proved embarrassing to al-Maliki's government. Saddam was shown being taunted by guards as he was led to his death, and his half-brother's head was torn off when he plunged downward.