BAGHDAD, 13 February 2007 — Taha Yassin Ramadan, executed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein’s vice president, was himself sentenced to death yesterday for crimes against humanity.
“The condemned Taha Yassin Ramadan shall be sentenced to hanging until death for committing deliberate killing crimes,” Judge Ali Al-Kahachi said, after the Iraqi High Tribunal met to review an earlier life sentence.
“This is in accordance to the higher criminal court and the penal court law,” the judge added, explaining that the new sentence would automatically be reviewed by a panel of appeal judges.
There is little doubt, however, that the panel will confirm the death sentence, as it was this body which sent Ramadan’s case back to the court after judging his life sentence unduly lenient.
Following the verdict, Ramadan cried out: “I swear to God I am innocent. May God support me. May God take revenge against everyone who rendered me injustice.” US-based Human Rights Watch had urged Iraq not to impose the death penalty because they said there was insufficient evidence linking Ramadan to the murders of Shiite villagers from Dujail, north of Baghdad, in the 1980s.
“The tribunal found Ramadan guilty without evidence linking him to the horrific crimes committed in Dujail,” said Richard Dicker, of the organization’s International Justice Program.
Bombs Kill Scores in Baghdad
Bomb attacks at crowded markets in central Baghdad killed at least 76 people yesterday as Iraqis marked the first anniversary of a Shiite shrine bombing that pitched the country to the brink of civil war.
The blasts came a day after Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki said Iraqi security forces would step up their deployment in Baghdad under a US-backed offensive against militants.
In the deadliest attack, at least 71 people were killed and 164 wounded in the popular Shorja wholesale market. An Interior Ministry spokesman said three car bombs exploded in quick succession. However, Maj. Gen. Abdul Rasool Al-Zaidi from the Civil Defense Authority told Iraqiya state television the carnage was caused by five roadside bombs that blew up simultaneously around a multistory building.
Huge clouds of black smoke and flames belched from the building, which houses wholesale clothing merchants, turning a cloudless day into night in the debris-strewn street. The blasts echoed across Baghdad and reduced market stalls to mangled wrecks. People with wooden carts carried badly wounded survivors with bandaged legs, arms and heads. Some 75 cars were destroyed.
