US hands Saddam to Iraqis for execution -lawyer
Fri Dec 29, 2006 5:19 PM GMT143
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By Mariam Karouny
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. officials on Friday handed over Saddam Hussein to Iraqi authorities for execution, his chief lawyer said, but conflicting accounts swirled over whether the ousted president would be hanged within hours.
Senior Iraqi officials, including two cabinet ministers, the Justice Ministry which is responsible for executions, a court prosecutor and an aide to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, all denied comments from a U.S. official and reports in Iraqi media that Saddam could go to the gallows as early as Saturday.
But an Iraqi television channel quoted a judge saying he would die on Friday or Saturday and defence lawyer Khalil al- Dulaimi told Reuters: "The Americans have notified us that they have handed over the president to the Iraqi authorities.
"They told us the president is no longer under the authority of the American forces and they requested us not to go to Baghdad," added Dulaimi.
He earlier said he had been told to arrange to collect Saddam's personal effects -- a move another defence lawyer said indicated he could die on Saturday.
A U.S. military spokesman referred questions to another spokesman who was not immediately available for comment.
Saddam, whose appeal against a conviction for crimes against humanity was rejected this week, has long been formally in Iraqi custody but physically held by U.S. military guards.
As during his appearances in court, U.S. officials are concerned that Saddam be treated with due propriety and so a physical transfer to a site beyond U.S. control has so far seemed to be likely only very close to the execution.
Saddam could hang in hours -Iraqi officials
Fri Dec 29, 2006 6:45 PM GMT144
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By Mariam Karouny
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Saddam Hussein could be hanged within hours, a senior Iraqi source told Reuters on Friday after Saddam's lawyer said U.S. forces had handed over the former president to Iraqi authorities for execution.
U.S. officials, however, insisted that the 69-year-old ousted dictator was still in American hands.
And a leading politician said Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki was waiting for a religious ruling on whether Saturday's start of the Eid al-Adha holiday, coinciding with the haj pilgrimage to Mecca, meant the execution should be postponed for a week.
An appeals court on Tuesday upheld Saddam's November 5 death sentence for the killings, torture and other crimes against the Shi'ite population of the town of Dujail.
After a day of conflicting signals, during which the Justice Ministry had said it could legally do nothing for a month, the senior Iraqi source said debate over whether a presidential decree was needed to override that was over.
"That is resolved so it seems it's possible he may be hanged tonight," the source said.
Najib Naimi, a former Qatar justice minister who served on Saddam's legal defence team, said he expected his client to be hanged at dawn on Saturday.
"We think he might be executed by tomorrow as a gift for the Iraqis," he told BBC News 24.
"Maybe early tomorrow morning he might be executed ... we are now talking with them regarding the body itself," he said. "We would like to have his body to return it to the family so they can bury him at any place they wish."
PERSONAL BELONGINGS
If it goes ahead, Maliki, whose authority has been in question as the country slides towards all-out sectarian civil war, would seem to have forced through a decision popular with Shi'ites in the face of resistance from Saddam's fellow Sunnis and from Kurds keen to see Saddam first convicted of genocide against them.
Earlier Saddam's chief defence lawyer, Khalil al-Dulaimi, told Reuters that U.S. officials had transferred Saddam to Iraqi authorities. He said he had been told to arrange to collect Saddam's personal belongings -- a move another defence lawyer said indicated he could die on Saturday.
A U.S. official in Baghdad denied Saddam had been handed over. "He is still in U.S. custody," the official told Reuters.
U.S. troops have hitherto physically kept guard over Saddam and were expected to hold on to him until the last minute to avoid security breaches.
A source in the team that prosecuted Saddam for crimes against humanity said prosecutors, who should have a representative at any execution, had not yet been invited to attend.
Shi'ite politician Bahaa al-Araji said Maliki had asked Shi'ite religious leaders and clerics from Saddam's Sunni Arab minority whether Saddam could be executed immediately. He told Reuters they may approve a hanging before noon (0900 GMT), when the festival formally begins, or say it should be delayed.
It's past 10PM in Iraq now.He may have only 2 more hours to live.
See post# 586.