Iraqi TV: Saddam Hussein will be executed within hours
Saddam to be executed soon: Iraqi media report
Baghdad -- Saddam Hussein will be executed within hours, according to a report by Iraqi television Friday, but it remained unclear if the US military had turned him over to Iraqi authorities so the death sentence can be carried out.
The Iraqi television station al-Sharqiya, quoting Munir Haddad, a judge on the Iraqi appeals court, as telling reporters in Baghdad's fortified Green Zone that the execution could take place within an hour.
There have been conflicted reports throughout Friday about whether Saddam had been handed over to the Iraqis, with two of his defence attorneys saying the transfer had taken place. But Iraqi and US officials insisted he remained in American custody.
Najib al-Nuaimi, a member of Saddam's defence team, had earlier told CNN that the execution will take place no later than Saturday, and another defence attorney said Saddam was in Iraqi custody.
"We now received an email from Lawrence Lee, the US liaison officer between the court and the president, telling us that he has been transferred to the Iraqi responsibility," Ziyad Najdawi told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.
But Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari denied reports of the custody transfer and said there was "no definite timeline for the execution."
"He has not been handed over to the Iraqi authorities," Zebari said. "Certain legal procedures need to be completed before he is handed over."
A US official said he could "absolutely confirm" that Saddam remained in US detention and did not know whether the execution was imminent, adding that is a decision for the Iraqi government.
"All of the information we have is that he has not been turned over to Iraqi authorities," the official said.
The handover was also reported by Iraqi television and other media. Although Saddam trial was carried out by the Iraqi judicial system, the former dictator has been in US custody for security reasons. He would have to be turned over before an execution, but it was not clear how much time would elapse between any turnover and the execution.
The Sunni eid festival was to begin on Saturday, and Iraqi law forbids execution of Sunnis during the religious celebration.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki was reportedly holding an emergency session of his cabinet to discuss the execution.
CNN quoted an Iraqi Shiite member of parliament as saying a scaffold had been prepared in the Green Zone in Baghdad, while a cleric, judge and doctor were on standby amid indications that a hanging was to take place.
Earlier Friday, al-Maliki said the execution would be carried out "without delay", and there was "no going back" with regard to the death sentence handed down by an Iraqi court after Saddam was convicted in connection to a 1982 massacre of Shiites.
"Nobody can abrogate the verdict and whoever refuses Saddam's execution underestimates the Iraqi martyrs," al-Maliki told state television. "There will be no review or delay in carrying out the sentence," he said.
At US President George W Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas, a White House spokesman would not comment on the timing of the execution.
"That is a matter for the Iraqi people, we are observers to that process," spokesman Scott Stanzel said. "They are a sovereign government and they will make their own decisions regarding carrying out justice."
The head of Saddam Hussein's defence team said he could not rule out the possibility that the ousted Iraqi leader could be executed within days.
"Anything is possible, given our experience with the Americans and their growing lack of credibility across the world," Khalil Duleimi told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.
Legal sources in Baghdad said the verdict originally handed down November 5 and upheld by an appeals court on Tuesday was decisive, and the Iraqi Ministry of Justice was waiting for a presidential decree for the execution to go ahead.
The lawyer's comments follow reports the previous day by three US television networks which speculated that the execution could be carried out before Sunday, the last day of 2006 and the start of an Islamic festival to mark the end of the hajj, or month of pilgrimage.
NBC said that the US military, which has held custody of Saddam during his trials for the massacre in the Shiite town of Dujail and a second case of alleged genocide against Iraqi Kurds, had received a formal request from the Iraqi government to transfer him to Iraqi authorities, although this was contradicted by other news reports.
Duleimi meanwhile confirmed to dpa that the US military had requested that Saddam's defence team collect his personal effects.
"The American side contacted me ... and said they wanted any person from our side to go to them and retrieve the personal belongings of the president and those of Barzan Tikriti (Saddam's half-brother and former intelligence chief)," Duleimi said.
"I asked them if they had handed over the president to the Iraqi authorities, they failed to confirm this," he said, adding however he believed "all eventualities are possible."
In Geneva, the UN Human Rights Commissioner Louise Arbour warned against a quick execution of Saddam and also questioned the integrity of the former dictator's trial.
"There were a number of concerns as to the fairness of the original trial, and there needs to be assurance that these issues have been comprehensively addressed," she said in a statement released Thursday evening.
"I call therefore on the Iraqi authorities not to act precipitately in seeking to execute the sentence in these cases," she added.
Saddam and six of his former top government aides were found guilty on November 5 of ordering the killing of 148 Shiites in Dujail in retaliation for an attempt on Saddam's life.
Iraq's highest appeal court on Tuesday rejected an appeal against the death sentence imposed on Saddam and two co-defendants - Barzan al-Tikriti and former aide Awad Ahmed al-Bandar.
According to the Iraqi constitution, the verdict must be ratified by the president and his deputies before the former dictator is hanged.
The trial was criticised by several world human rights and legal organizations on the grounds that it failed to live up to international standards.
"We have made it clear so far that the trial of the president and his co-defendants represented a flagrant violation of international law," Duleimi said Friday.
He appealed for "immediate intervention" to save the life of the former leader by world human rights and legal organizations, the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, the Arab League and Arab leaders.
The Amman-based defence team comprises some 20 prominent Arab and non-Arab lawyers including former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark, former French Foreign Minister Roland Dumas and former Qatari Justice Minister Najib al-Naimi. // © 2006 DPA
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