Image Credit: BBSNews screen grab from internet video accessed 2007-01-06.
JORDAN/IRAQ: Legal challenge to be mounted on Saddam's hanging
BBSNews 2007-01-07 - AMMAN, (IRIN) -- The defence team for the former Iraqi leader, Saddam Hussein, is considering legal action against the Iraqi and US authorities in light of the controversial video footage of Saddam's execution which was posted on the Internet.
|
|
|
Image of Saddam Hussein as the noose is put around his neck.
Image Credit: BBSNews screen grab from internet video accessed 2007-01-06. |
Saddam was found guilty of committing crimes against humanity and was hanged in Baghdad on 30 December, 2006.
"We are studying all our options including filing for compensation over the damages inflected on Saddam supporters," said Saleh Armouti, head of the Jordan Bar Association (JBA) and a member of Saddam defence team.
"The man was sentenced to death and this is the maximum punishment, they should have at least made him die in peace," Armouti told IRIN.
Taleb Assaf, head of the Jordan Front for Human Rights said publishing the video was a "gross human rights violation and weakens the United Nations and the rest of the international community in abolishing the death sentence".
"The family of Saddam and his supporters were hurt deeply by the manner in which his execution took place mostly after noticing the taunts of Shi'ites before his death. This man lived as a statesman and should have been dignified before being executed."
The three-minute footage showed a defiant Saddam exchanging insults with his guards before he was sent to the gallows.
Saddam's execution, carried out in the early hours of Eid al-Adha, the Muslim holiday that marks the end of the hajj [the pilgrimage to Makkah], took many of his supporters by surprise, despite the Iraqi supreme court's decision last month to uphold his death sentence.
Comments (0)