Prosecutors Seek Death By Hanging For Saddam
Julie Farby - All Headline News Staff Writer Baghdad, Iraq (AHN)-Prosecutors demanded the death penalty on Monday for Saddam Hussein and three of his former top aides for crimes against humanity following a 1982 crackdown on Shi'ites in which hundreds were killed and tortured. If found guilty, Saddam faces death by hanging. Prosecutors also requested the death penalty for Saddam's half-brother Barzan al-Tikriti, former vice-president Taha Yassin Ramadan and the former chief judge of Saddam's Revolutionary Court, Awad Hamed al-Bander. According to Reuters, chief prosecutor Jaafar al-Moussawi told chief Judge Raouf Abdel Rahman, "The prosecution demand that the court impose the heaviest penalties on those defendants who spread corruption on earth and where not even trees escape their oppression, so we demand the court impose the death penalty." Defense lawyers will start making final remarks for each of the eight defendants on July 10, and a five-judge panel will then adjourn to consider a verdict. However, any sentence of execution for Saddam could be delayed by appeals and possibly up to a dozen other trials. Meanwhile, some international legal groups say Iraq's sectarian tension makes a fair trial impossible.
Article © All Headline News - All Rights Reserved
|
