Saddam Hussein could be hanged within days after the rejection of his appeal by Iraq’s highest court on Tuesday.
The former Iraqi dictator was sentenced to death in November over the killing of 148 Shi’ite Muslims from the town of Dujail in 1982. He is facing another trial, accused of genocide against the Kurds — but that may now never be completed.
The death sentence from the first trial must be implemented within 30 days, the chief judge, Aref Shahin, said on Tuesday, hinting that it could come even sooner: “From tomorrow [Wednesday], any day could be the day of implementation.”
Iraq’s prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki, a member of the Shi’ite majority persecuted under Saddam’s Sunni-minority rule, has already said he wants the execution to take place before the end of the year.
One option would be to do it without prior announcement in an attempt to forestall possible protests — though some Shi’ite elements have called for the hanging to be televised. Saddam (69) is in the custody of United States forces, so Washington could also have a say in the timing.
The British government opposes the death penalty. “It’s a matter for the Iraqi tribunal but we’ve always made our position clear,” a Foreign Office spokesperson said on Tuesday.
Saddam’s chief defence counsel, Khalil al-Dulaimi, told Reuters from Amman: “If they dare implement the sentence it will be a catastrophe for the region and will only deepen the sectarian infighting.”
In Tuesday’s ruling the court also rejected appeals by Saddam’s half-brother, Barzan al-Tikriti, and a former judge, Awad al-Bander, both of whom were sentenced to death over the Dujail killings.
It rejected the life sentence on the former vice-president Taha Yassin Ramadan, recommending execution instead.
In a detailed report last month, the New York-based Human Rights Watch condemned the verdict in Saddam’s case as unsound, saying the court had been guilty of so many shortcomings that a fair trial was impossible. Amnesty International said the trial was flawed.
Meanwhile, in the southern city of Basra on Tuesday, British troops were on alert for reprisals 24 hours after raiding a police station to stop renegade Iraqi officers executing prisoners.
“We fully expect more attacks on our bases and on Basra stations, but that’s nothing out of the ordinary,” Major Charlie Burbridge, a military spokesperson, said on Tuesday. “But this is part of a long-term rehabilitation of the Iraqi police service … to ultimately provide better security for the people of Basra.”
The British troops removed 127 prisoners from the station, then blew it up, he said, adding that the prisoners had showed evidence of torture.
At least 54 Iraqis died on Tuesday in various bombings, including a coordinated strike that killed 25 in western Baghdad, according to officials.
The three car bombs in a mixed Sunni and Shi’ite district injured at least 55, a doctor at Yarmouk hospital said.
In separate attacks, another car bomb exploded near a mosque in northern Baghdad, killing seven and wounding 25, a doctor at al-Nuaman hospital said.
Meanwhile, the United States announced the deaths of seven American soldiers, pushing the US military death toll since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003 to at least 2Â 978. — Guardian Unlimited Â