Posted on 01/04/2007 10:14:50 AM PST by blam
Iraq delays executions amid UN pressure
By Damien McElroy, Foreign Affairs Correspondent
Last Updated: 2:46pm GMT 04/01/2007
Iraq has postponed the execution of two former officials convicted alongside Saddam Hussein, bowing to international pressure to respect legal and religious traditions.
The former dictator’s half-brother Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikrit and the ex-head of the Ba’athist revolutionary court, Awad Ahmed al-Bandar were to be hanged today but the government said the date had been put back.
A spokesman for the prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, said pleas from outside Iraq, including a call for restraint from Ban Ki-moon, the new United Nations Secretary General, had forced the government’s hand.
Mr Maliki has been widely criticised for forcing through Saddam’s execution by overriding legal safeguards on capital punishment and ignoring the sensitivities surrounding a major Muslim holiday. Confusion remains over when the men will face the hangman’s noose.
Sami al-Askari, a prominent law-maker, said the executions will be carried out after state holidays for the Eid al-Adha festival end on Saturday.
"The executions will be after the holidays," said Mr Askari, who represented the prime minister at Saddam's hanging on Saturday.
Some members of the government were said to favour a later date, after an appeals court reconsiders a verdict on Iraq’s former vice-president Taha Yassin Ramadan.
Mr Ramadan was, like Saddam and the two men due to hang today, charged with ordering the execution of 148 Shia Muslims in the village Dujail in the 1980s but escaped a death sentence.
After earlier appearing to endorse the Iraqi government’s right to execute its former president as it pleased, Mr Ban yesterday called on Baghdad to exercise clemency.
A UN spokeswoman, Michele Montas, said Mr Ban was opposed to the implementation of the death penalty.
"The secretary general strongly believes in the wisdom of Article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which states everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person," she said.
"He fully endorses the call made today by [UN High Commissioner for Human Rights] Louise Arbour for restraint by the government of Iraq in the execution of the death sentences imposed by the Iraqi high tribunal."
An investigation into the chaotic scenes that surrounded Saddam’s execution, where the hangmen were filmed shouting support for militia leader Moqtada al-Sadr, is continuing.
Two guards were arrested for taping the execution but an Iraqi prosecutor has claimed the men were not responsible.
Munkith al-Faroon challenged the arrest of the guards, claiming he had witnessed two senior officials filming the hanging.
Iraq’s National Security Advisor, Mowaffaq al-Rubaie rejected claims that sectarian bloodlust had dominated Saddam’s last minutes.
“Basically [the hangmen] were doing their congregational prayers and supplications, and they mentioned at the end of their supplication the name of Moqtada," Mr Rubaie said.
"I can't see where is the humiliation, to be quite honest. Moqtada, Moqtada, Moqtada is not a dirty word, not an obscene word. They were not cursing."
Big mistake, shows weakness. I am just thankful they hanged Saddam on schedule. Too bad they cant hang Al Sadr.
Huge mistake. Perhaps they can move in with Kofi to await the hangman.
These executions will take place in an ornately decorated room with wine & cheese served to the condemned while chamber music plays.
Then they'll have their necks snapped.
There. Everyone feel better now?
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