Saddam appeals against death sentence BreakingNews.ie_1465

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Saddam appeals against death sentence You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login
Saddam Hussein’s lawyers have formally appealed against his death sentence for the killing of 148 Shiites.
Five Iraqi judges sentenced Saddam and two other senior members of his regime to death by hanging on November 5 for the killings in the town of Dujail, north of BaYou are not allowed to view links. Register or Loginad, following a 1982 attempt there on the life of the ousted leader.
Under Iraqi law, death sentences are automatically appealed before a higher court within 10 days of their passage, but defence lawyers must file a formal appeal within 30 days, detailing the legal grounds for their action and presenting new evidence that could support their clients’ claims of innocence.
The lawyers could also make a plea for leniency.
“Today, defence lawyers came to the court and filed an appeal against the death sentence passed against Saddam Hussein and other sentences in the Dujail case,” Iraqi High Tribunal spokesman Raid Juhi said yesterday.
Saddam’s chief lawyer, Khalil al-Dulaimi, said two lawyers on the defence team had submitted the papers. He complained that defence lawyers had not received copies of the verdict until November 23, delaying the appeal process.
“Finally we were able to do it,You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login,” al-Dulaimi said. “We had to hastily prepare the appeal because the court procrastinated in giving us the documents necessary for the submission in a bid to obstruct the appeal process.”
Also sentenced to death was Barzan Ibrahim, Saddam’s half-brother and Iraq’s former intelligence chief, and Awad Hamed al-Bandar,You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login, who was head of Iraq’s Revolutionary Court when it condemned the Dujail residents to death following the assassination attempt.
Iraq’s former vice-president Taha Yassin Ramadan was convicted of premeditated murder and sentenced to life in prison.
Three defendants were given up to 15 years for torture and premeditated murder. Abdullah Kazim Ruwayyid, Mizhar Abdullah Ruwayyid and Ali Dayih Ali were party officials in Dujail who were believed to be responsible for the mass arrests.
A local Baath Party official, Mohammed Azawi Ali, was acquitted for lack of evidence.
The nine-judge higher court does not have a time limit for ruling on the appeal, but the death sentences passed against Saddam, Ibrahim and al-Bandar must be carried out within a maximum of 30 days from the day they are upheld by the higher court.
If the appeal court upholds the sentences, all three members of Iraq’s Presidential Council, President Jalal Talabani and Vice-Presidents Tariq al-Hashimi and Adil Abdul-Mahdi, must sign death warrants before executions can be carried out.
Jaafar Moussawi,You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login, the chief prosecutor in the Dujail case,You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login, said in November that the trio could be hanged by the middle of January.
Saddam is being tried separately on charged of genocide linked to a military campaign in the 1980s against Iraq’s minority Kurds in which tens of thousands of people are thought to have been killed. If convicted in that trial, the former leader could receive a second death sentence.
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