Iraq’s appeals court wants to speed up the process of closure on the regime of deposed dictator Saddam Hussein and says he must be executed within 30 days:
Iraq’s highest appeals court on Tuesday upheld Saddam Hussein’s death sentence and said he must be hanged within 30 days for the killing of 148 Shiites in the central city of Dujail.
The sentence “must be implemented within 30 days,” chief judge Aref Shahin said. “From tomorrow, any day could be the day of implementation.”
So for months Saddam has been sitting a jail cell, and now Iraq’s courts want him to hang out. Literally:
On Nov. 5, an Iraqi court sentenced Saddam to the gallows for ordering the 1982 killings following an attempt on his life.
Under Iraqi law, the appeals court decision must be ratified by President Jalal Talabani and Iraq’s two vice presidents. Talabani opposes the death penalty but has in the past deputized a vice president to sign an execution order on his behalf _ a substitute that was legally accepted.
Raed Juhi, a spokesman for the High Tribunal court that convicted Saddam, said the judicial system would ensure that Saddam is executed even if Talabani and the two vice presidents do not ratify the decision.
“We’ll implement the verdict by the power of the law,” Juhi said. He did not elaborate.
The appeals court also upheld death sentences for Barzan Ibrahim, Saddam’s half brother and intelligence chief during the Dujail killings, and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, head of Iraq’s Revolutionary Court, which issued the death sentences against the Dujail residents.
This isn’t earth-shattering news. In a sense, the chapter on Iraq’s previous era isn’t complete until the former top elite of Saddam’s regime is disposed of –one way or another. The courts’ one good decision: doing it now instead of close to the American elections when it could have been charged that it was a political ploy aimed at influencing the U.S. vote.
Meanwhile, there is one danger in executing Saddam. Will he become a martyr to some in Iraq? Much of the answer to that will hinge on the future effectiveness of the present government — on whether the Saddam regime is perceived as a bad memory or as happier, more orderly times.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, writes a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.