BAGHDAD, 30 December 2006 — Saddam Hussein will be executed by today at the latest, an Iraqi judge said yesterday. “Saddam will be executed today or tomorrow,” said Munir Haddad, a judge on the appeals court that upheld the former dictator’s death sentence. “All the measures have been done.”
Haddad is authorized to attend the execution on behalf of the judiciary. “I am ready to attend and there is no reason for delays,” Haddad said.
The handover of Saddam from American custody to Iraqi authorities needs the signed approval of the Iraqi Justice Ministry, a senior official said. Justice Minister Hashim Abdul-Rahman Al-Shebli is not in the country, so a deputy must provide a signature, he said. Once that measure is complete, Saddam can be delivered directly to the place of his execution, the official said.
A senior official in Maliki’s office earlier said it was unlikely that the execution would be carried out during the Eid Al-Adha holiday that lasts until at least Wednesday.
Earlier, the US military asked lawyers of Saddam to pick up his personal effects in advance of his execution, one of his legal team said yesterday.
“The Americans called me and asked me to pick up the personal effects of the president and Barzan Al-Tikriti,” said lead lawyer Khalil Al-Dulaimi, referring to Saddam’s half brother who has also been sentenced to death.
Iraqi officials said that Saddam’s half brothers visited him in his jail cell and he gave them his will, indicating his execution may be imminent. But they said he had yet to be transferred to Iraqi custody.
The former president was being held at Camp Cropper, an American military prison before his handover.
On Tuesday, an Iraqi appeals court upheld Saddam’s death sentence for the killing of 148 people who were detained after an attempt to assassinate him in the northern Iraqi city of Dujail in 1982. The court said the former president should be hanged within 30 days.
“Our respect for human rights requires us to execute him, and there will be no review or delay in carrying out the sentence,” Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki said in comments released by his office yesterday.
The prime minister said those who oppose the execution of Saddam were insulting the honor of his victims. His office said he made the remarks in a meeting with families of people who died during Saddam’s rule.
The Iraqi presidency sent a letter to Maliki’s office saying that the death sentence does not have to be approved by President Jalal Talabani and his two deputies, a senior government official said on condition of anonymity. The official, who said he had read the letter, quoted it as saying that the presidency’s opinion was “identical” to that of the appeals court that upheld Saddam’s death sentence.
