Clock's ticking on Saddam's date with gallows

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Saddam Hussein's date with the executioner could come any day, after an appeals court upheld the deposed Iraqi leader's death sentence Tuesday, saying he must hang for ordering mass slayings in a Shiite Muslim town in 1982.

The decision could fan surging bloodshed between Iraq's ascendant Shiite Muslim majority and a disaffected Sunni Arab minority that had long been favored under Saddam. Government and security officials said they were bracing for more violence when the sentence is carried out.

Aref Shahin, chief judge of the appeals panel, said Tuesday there was no further legal recourse for Saddam, and the Iraqi executive is free to send him to the gallows "any day ... starting from tomorrow." The execution is required to be carried out within 30 days.

President Jalal Talabani and his two deputies are required to sign off on the execution before it is implemented. Talabani, a Kurd, opposes the death penalty but previously deputized a vice president to sign on his behalf.

If the government does not send Saddam to the gallows, the Iraqi High Tribunal's code would ensure his execution by other means, legal experts said, without elaborating.

Iraqi officials have begun to address the logistics and security measures entailed in an execution, possibly a closed and secret one, according to sources familiar with the preparations.

The Iraqi High Tribunal handed down death sentences against Saddam, 69, and two co-defendants Nov. 5 for orchestrating an attack on the Shiite town of Dujail after a failed assassination plot against him. Hundreds were detained, tortured and forced out of their homes, and more than 100 men and boys were executed after a summary trial.

Under Iraqi law, the verdicts and sentences automatically went for review before a nine-judge appeals chamber.

The White House called the appeals-court ruling a milestone in efforts to replace the rule of a tyrant with the rule of law. "Saddam Hussein has received due process and legal rights that he denied the Iraqi people for so long," White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said.

But legal experts said the verdict came too soon, three weeks after defense attorneys filed lengthy appeals on Saddam's behalf, reinforcing claims the trial was politically tainted.

Some Kurds also had hoped for a delay so Saddam can finish standing trial for a separate 1980s military campaign against the ethnic minority that prosecutors have described as genocide.

"It is not acceptable to finish everything with the Dujail case and leave 180,000 victims with no trial," said Vian Dizayee, a member of the Kurdish Parliament in the northern city of Irbil. Baghdad lawyer Hibba Mansouri predicted government leaders would not postpone Saddam's execution for the sake of the Kurdish trial.

Four other defendants received prison terms ranging from 15 years to life, and one was acquitted at the prosecution's request.

Tribunal spokesman Raed Juhi said the panel deliberated for three days before deciding to uphold the death sentences against Saddam, his half-brother Barzan Ibrahim and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, head of Iraq's Revolutionary Court, which issued the death sentences against the Dujail residents.

The judges also concluded that the life sentence against former Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan was too lenient and referred his case back to the tribunal for the death penalty. They did not alter the lesser sentences.

Capping a trial that was controversial from the start, the decision split the Iraqi public by sect and history.

Shiite Muslims and Kurds, whose groups suffered most under Saddam's rule, generally celebrated. Many of Saddam's fellow Sunni Arabs, however, warned that hanging the former president would intensify the current insurgency and sectarian killings.

It was unclear whether a hanging would be scheduled and carried out with public observers present. Among several proposals is one that calls for Saddam to be executed in secret as early as next week.

His body would then be formally identified by independent observers and the death revealed to the Iraqi public and the rest of the world, an official familiar with the proposal said.

The goal of such an approach would be to reduce retaliatory attacks by Sunnis and other loyalists.

On Tuesday, Iraqi politicians, including some Sunnis, called for a speedy execution, expressing concern that a delay could cause more bloodshed and division.

"The people who wanted Saddam to be hanged and the people who were defending Saddam both were expecting this verdict," said Mahmoud Othman, a Kurdish lawmaker widely seen as neutral by Sunnis and Shiites.

Many people would like the execution to happen quickly, Othman said, "because they're afraid that he might escape from prison. The more it's delayed, the more people will talk about it."

International reaction was mixed. British Prime Minister Tony Blair, a strong ally of the U.S. effort in Iraq, repeated his opposition to the death penalty, but he said the Iraqi decision "does give us a very clear reminder of the total and barbaric brutality of that regime."

Some human-rights groups urged the Iraqi government not to implement the sentence after a trial they said was deeply flawed.

Human Rights Watch said there were regular failures to disclose key evidence, violations of defendants' rights to confront witnesses and "lapses of judicial demeanor."

Three defense lawyers and a witness were killed during the nine-month trial, which also featured angry showdowns between the judges and Saddam. The former dictator rejected the legitimacy of the court and said he had the right to act against the Dujail victims.

Saddam is being held at Camp Cropper, a U.S. military prison close to Baghdad's airport. The U.S. military has had Saddam in its custody, on behalf of the Iraqis, since his capture in December 2003.

Military officials, however, were not able to say Tuesday whether the former dictator was being turned over to the Iraqis, in anticipation of his execution.

It's not clear where the hanging will take place. It might occur at Camp Cropper or, perhaps, at a Baghdad prison where the new Iraqi government has carried out other executions.

Saleh al-Armouti, one of Saddam's lawyers, warned against a hanging. "The region now will be more in flames, and the resistance will increase across the Arab world," he said, speaking by telephone from neighboring Jordan. "His absence will lead to more strife and civil war inside Iraq."

Al-Armouti said Saddam "doesn't fear death. His will and his faith are very strong."

In Dujail, residents described the decision as bringing them a step nearer the closure they have awaited for nearly 25 years. "Now I feel that there is actually a God up there in Heaven," said Haiyder Hamed, 43, a farmer.

Other residents wondered what the future would bring in a world without Saddam. "Executing Saddam is achieving justice on Earth and in heaven," said Hussein Mahmoud, 28, a police officer. "But will executing him bring Iraq as it used to be or will it make Iraq a burnt land?"

Material from the Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post and The Associated Press is included in this report.