Saddam to be executed tonight |
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BAGHDAD, Iraq - The official witnesses to Saddam Hussein's impending execution
gathered Friday in Baghdad's fortified Green Zone in final preparation for his
hanging, as state television broadcast footage of his regime's atrocities. With U.S.
forces on high alert for a surge in violence, the Iraqi government readied all the
necessary documents, including a "red card" — an execution order introduced during
Saddam's dictatorship. As the hour of his death approached, Saddam received two of
his half brothers in his cell on Thursday and was said to have given them his personal
belongings and a copy of his will. Najeeb al-Nueimi, a member of Saddam's legal
team in Doha, Qatar, said he too requested a final meeting with the deposed Iraqi
leader. "His daughter in Amman was crying, she said 'Take me with you,'" al-Nueimi
said late Friday. But he said their request was rejected. An adviser to Prime Minister
Nouri al-Maliki said Saddam would be executed before 6 a.m. Saturday, or 10 p.m.
Friday EST. Also to be hanged at that time were Saddam's half-brother Barzan
Ibrahim and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, the former chief justice of the Revolutionary
Court, the adviser said. The time was agreed upon during a meeting Friday between
U.S. and Iraqi officials, said the adviser, who declined to be named because he is not
authorized to speak to the media. "Saddam will be handed over shortly before the
execution," the official said. The physical transfer of Saddam from U.S. to Iraqi
authorities was believed to be one of the last steps before he was to be hanged.
Saddam has been in U.S. custody since he was captured in December 2003. Al-
Nueimi said U.S. authorities were maintaining physical custody of Saddam to prevent
him from being humiliated before his execution. He said the Americans also want to
prevent the mutilation of his corpse, as has happened to other deposed Iraqi leaders.
"The Americans want him to be hanged respectfully," al-Nueimi said. If Saddam is
humiliated publicly or his corpse ill-treated "that could cause an uprising and the
Americans would be blamed," he said. Munir Haddad, a judge on the appeals court
that upheld Saddam's death sentence, said he was ready to attend the hanging and
that all the paperwork was in order, including the red card. "All the measures have
been done," Haddad said. "There is no reason for delays." As American and Iraqi
officials met in Baghdad to set the hour of his death, Saddam's lawyers asked a U.S.
judge for a stay of execution. Saddam's lawyers issued a statement Friday calling on
"everybody to do everything to stop this unfair execution." The statement also said
the former president had been transferred from U.S. custody, though American and
Iraqi officials later denied that. Al-Maliki said opposing Saddam's execution was an
insult to his victims. His office said he made the remarks in a meeting with families of
people who died during Saddam's rule. "Our respect for human rights requires us to
execute him, and there will be no review or delay in carrying out the sentence," al-
Maliki said. State television ran footage of the Saddam era's atrocities, including
images of uniformed men placing a bomb next to a youth's chest and blowing him up
in what looked like a desert, and handcuffed men being thrown from a high building.
About 10 people registered to attend the hanging gathered in the Green Zone before
they were to go to the execution site, the Iraqi official said. Those cleared to attend the
execution included a Muslim cleric, lawmakers, senior officials and relatives of
victims of Saddam's brutal rule, the official said. He did not disclose the location of
the gallows. Raed Juhi, spokesman for the High Tribunal court that convicted
Saddam, said documents related to the execution would be read to Saddam before the
execution. The documents included the red card, al-Maliki's signed approval of the
sentence and the appeal court's decision. On Thursday, two half brothers visited
Saddam in his cell, a member of the former dictator's defense team, Badee Izzat Aref,
told The Associated Press by telephone from the United Arab Emirates. He said the
former dictator handed them his personal belongings. A senior official at the Iraqi
defense ministry also confirmed the meeting and said Saddam gave his will to one of
his half brothers. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not
authorized to speak to the media. Saddam's lawyers later issued a statement saying
the Americans gave permission for his belongings to be retrieved. An Iraqi appeals
court upheld Saddam's death sentence Tuesday 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 hanging should take place within 30 days. There had been
disagreements among Iraqi officials in recent days as to whether Iraqi law dictates the
execution must take place within 30 days and whether President Jalal Talabani and
his two deputies had to approve it. In his Friday sermon, a mosque preacher in the
Shiite holy city of Najaf called Saddam's execution "God's gift to Iraqis." "Oh, God,
you know what Saddam has done! He killed millions of Iraqis in prisons, in wars with
neighboring countries and he is responsible for mass graves," said Sheik Sadralddin
al-Qubanji, a member of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq,
known as SCIRI, a dominant party in al-Maliki's coalition. "Oh God, we ask you to
take revenge on Saddam." |
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DEC. 29,2006 |
