 BAGHDAD - The Iraqi government renewed its call on Tuesday for the executions of officials in the ousted regime of Saddam Hussein to go ahead despite the objections of Iraq’s president and vice president. “The cabinet appeals to the presidency council to approve the decisions issued by the Iraqi High Tribunal against criminals that were sentenced to death,” government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said in a statement.
SaddamÂ’s cousin Ali Hassan al-Majeed, former Defence Minister Sultan Hashem and former army commander Hussein Rashid Muhammed have all been sentenced to death for their role in the Anfal military campaign against ethnic Kurds in 1988.
Majeed has two other death sentences, one for crushing a 1991 ShiÂ’ite revolt and another for killing and displacing ShiÂ’ite Muslims in 1999.
| Keep passing the death sentences and make sure that at least two or three are carried out. |
MajeedÂ’s initial death sentence in 2007 was widely cheered, but Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, and Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi, a Sunni Arab, opposed Hashem and MuhammedÂ’s execution, arguing the military men were following orders.
| Good Germans they were ... |
That put Talabani and Hashemi at odds with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, a ShiÂ’ite, whose co-religionists suffered terribly under SaddamÂ’s minority Sunni Arab rule.
Although Talabani and Hashemi have no objections to the execution of Majeed, the legal wrangle has held up the execution of all three sentenced for the Anfal campaign. They were due to have gone to the gallows within days of an Iraqi appeals court upholding their death sentences in September 2007. |