InterPress: Saddam Execution Set to Destabilize Iraq Further

[marmar]

from InterPress, via CommonDreams:

Published on Friday, December 29, 2006 by the Inter Press Service
Saddam Execution Set to Destabilise Iraq Further
by Dahr Jamail and Ali al-Fadhily

Former dictator Saddam Hussein is due to be executed soon in a move that could bring more instability in an increasingly violent and chaotic occupation.

The execution is to follow a decision by a court of appeal Dec. 26 to uphold the death sentence for Saddam. Under present Iraqi law, execution must be carried out within 30 days of confirmation of the order.

Chief judge Aref Shahin said following confirmation of the death sentence: "From tomorrow, any day could be the day of implementation."

Saddam is also in the midst of another trial over charges of genocide and other crimes during a 1987-1988 military crackdown on Kurds in northern Iraq. An estimated 180,000 Kurds died during the operation.

That trial has been adjourned until Jan. 8. Saddam's co-defendants in that case are likely to face trial if he is executed.

Saddam was convicted last month for ordering the killing of 148 Shias in Dujail town in 1982 in revenge for an assassination attempt against him. He was sentenced to death by hanging.

The completion of the nine-month trial that saw 39 court sessions, through which three defence lawyers and a witness were murdered, will most likely inflame Iraq's political divide further.

Hashim al-Ubaydi's son was sentenced to death by a 'revolution court' of the Saddam regime. But he is not pleased to see that Saddam Hussein will be executed in the present circumstances.

"I was an opponent of Saddam and his policies, but I support putting him through a real national court away from occupation influence. I cannot forgive or forget that my son was executed, but as an Iraqi nationalist I cannot accept to see the president of my country put to trial in such a ridiculous way by invaders and their tails." .....(more)

The rest of the article is at: http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/1229-04.htm

[zonmoy]

1. and thus iraq will become a permanent us colony.

assuming that we can control it enough to make it something slightly better than a failed state.