MedicCook
12-26-2006, 11:49 AM
Iraqi court upholds Hussein death sentence
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The Iraqi High Tribunal's appellate chamber on Tuesday upheld Saddam Hussein's death sentence in the Dujail massacre case, chamber spokesman Judge Raed Juhi told CNN.
In November, Hussein was sentenced to death by hanging for his role in the 1982 killings of 148 people in Dujail, a mostly Shiite town north of Baghdad.
According to Iraqi law, a death sentence upheld by the appellate chamber must be carried out within 30 days. (Watch to see how international law figures into the ruling )
Hussein's chief defense attorney, Khalil al-Dulaimi, said he had heard about the decision, but said it came from "an illegitimate and unconstitutional court."
"We are not surprised by this crazy ruling," al-Dulaimi said.
The lawyer, speaking from Amman, Jordan, said three other members of the defense team met with Hussein on Tuesday and described the former Iraqi leader as being in high spirits.
Under international law, most governments have the power to stay any executions, but Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has said his government would not do so in Hussein's case.
Hussein and two co-defendants -- his half-brother and former intelligence chief Barzan Hassan, and Awad Bandar, former chief judge of the Revolutionary Court -- were found guilty in the killings in Dujail after an attempt to assassinate the then-Iraqi leader.
Hussein and others are being tried in another case -- the killings of up to 100,000 Kurds during the 1988 Anfal campaign against Kurdish rebels, which included the use of poison gas against Kurdish towns in northern Iraq.
Triple bomb attack in Baghdad
A high-ranking Iraqi Interior Ministry official was shot dead and a trade official was kidnapped Tuesday, while explosions killed 28 people and wounded 108 others, according to Interior Ministry and police sources.
Among the dead were three American soldiers who were killed in a roadside bomb blast northwest of Baghdad, the U.S. military said.
The slain Interior Ministry official -- Maj. Gen. Imad Mohsen Jaafar -- was killed when unidentified attackers sprayed his car with bullets as he drove down a northern Baghdad street, a ministry official said. Jaafar was Iraq's border crossing director.
Another Iraqi government official, Muhanad Saleh, the Trade Ministry's director of the Baghdad international fair, was abducted by gunmen in western Baghdad, the ministry official said.
Three car bombs exploded in quick succession at an intersection in western Baghdad's al-Bayaa district, killing 16 people and wounding 70 others, the Interior Ministry official said.
A police officer was killed by a mortar explosion in a central Baghdad residential area early Tuesday, an Interior Ministry official said. Six other police officers and six civilians were wounded in the blast, the official said.
Five Iraqi civilians were killed and 18 hurt when a roadside bomb exploded in a central Baghdad outdoor market, the official said.
In northeastern Iraq, a roadside bomb went off near an elementary school in Kirkuk, killing three children and wounding eight others, Kirkuk police said.
Eighty-nine U.S. troops have died in Iraq in December, including four soldiers who were killed in three separate roadside bombings in and around Baghdad on Christmas Day, the U.S. military said.
The number of U.S. military personnel killed in the Iraq war stands at 2,977, including seven civilian contractors of the Defense Department, pushing the death toll above that of the September 11, 2001, attacks. An estimated 2,973 people were killed in the attacks on New York, the Pentagon and Pennsylvania.
President Bush has said the U.S.-led war in Iraq is part of a broader policy to battle threats overseas after the 9/11 attacks.
The president has said the Iraq invasion was a necessary part of the war on terror because Hussein's regime was a "clear threat" that posed "a risk that the world could not afford to take." Bush has said Hussein had "nothing" to do with 9/11.
Other developments
Iraqi and Iranian authorities slammed the United States on Monday for arresting several Iranians who were visiting Iraq. A U.S. official said the Iranians were suspected of involvement in attacks against Iraqi security forces. A spokesman for Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said Talabani had invited the Iranians to the country, and the president was "unhappy" about the arrests. An Iranian Foreign Ministry representative warned that "this action is not justifiable by any international rules." The arrests come amid tensions between Washington and Tehran over Iran's nuclear program. (Full story)
British and Iraqi soldiers raided an Iraqi police station Monday in the southern city of Basra where they suspected a rogue police unit was planning to kill 76 prisoners. After the prisoners were removed, the soldiers destroyed the police station, a British official said.
A bomb in a parked car detonated Monday near a parking lot in eastern Baghdad, killing 10 people and wounding 15 others, according to an Iraqi Interior Ministry official. Elsewhere Monday in the capital, a suicide bomber detonated explosives strapped to his body inside a bus on the city's northern outskirts, killing at least two people and wounding seven others, an Interior Ministry official said.
Iraqi police found 40 bullet-riddled bodies Monday in the capital, an Interior Ministry official said. Most of the bodies showed signs of torture; their hands were tied, and they were blindfolded. None of the bodies has been identified.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/12/26/iraq.main/index.html
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The Iraqi High Tribunal's appellate chamber on Tuesday upheld Saddam Hussein's death sentence in the Dujail massacre case, chamber spokesman Judge Raed Juhi told CNN.
In November, Hussein was sentenced to death by hanging for his role in the 1982 killings of 148 people in Dujail, a mostly Shiite town north of Baghdad.
According to Iraqi law, a death sentence upheld by the appellate chamber must be carried out within 30 days. (Watch to see how international law figures into the ruling )
Hussein's chief defense attorney, Khalil al-Dulaimi, said he had heard about the decision, but said it came from "an illegitimate and unconstitutional court."
"We are not surprised by this crazy ruling," al-Dulaimi said.
The lawyer, speaking from Amman, Jordan, said three other members of the defense team met with Hussein on Tuesday and described the former Iraqi leader as being in high spirits.
Under international law, most governments have the power to stay any executions, but Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has said his government would not do so in Hussein's case.
Hussein and two co-defendants -- his half-brother and former intelligence chief Barzan Hassan, and Awad Bandar, former chief judge of the Revolutionary Court -- were found guilty in the killings in Dujail after an attempt to assassinate the then-Iraqi leader.
Hussein and others are being tried in another case -- the killings of up to 100,000 Kurds during the 1988 Anfal campaign against Kurdish rebels, which included the use of poison gas against Kurdish towns in northern Iraq.
Triple bomb attack in Baghdad
A high-ranking Iraqi Interior Ministry official was shot dead and a trade official was kidnapped Tuesday, while explosions killed 28 people and wounded 108 others, according to Interior Ministry and police sources.
Among the dead were three American soldiers who were killed in a roadside bomb blast northwest of Baghdad, the U.S. military said.
The slain Interior Ministry official -- Maj. Gen. Imad Mohsen Jaafar -- was killed when unidentified attackers sprayed his car with bullets as he drove down a northern Baghdad street, a ministry official said. Jaafar was Iraq's border crossing director.
Another Iraqi government official, Muhanad Saleh, the Trade Ministry's director of the Baghdad international fair, was abducted by gunmen in western Baghdad, the ministry official said.
Three car bombs exploded in quick succession at an intersection in western Baghdad's al-Bayaa district, killing 16 people and wounding 70 others, the Interior Ministry official said.
A police officer was killed by a mortar explosion in a central Baghdad residential area early Tuesday, an Interior Ministry official said. Six other police officers and six civilians were wounded in the blast, the official said.
Five Iraqi civilians were killed and 18 hurt when a roadside bomb exploded in a central Baghdad outdoor market, the official said.
In northeastern Iraq, a roadside bomb went off near an elementary school in Kirkuk, killing three children and wounding eight others, Kirkuk police said.
Eighty-nine U.S. troops have died in Iraq in December, including four soldiers who were killed in three separate roadside bombings in and around Baghdad on Christmas Day, the U.S. military said.
The number of U.S. military personnel killed in the Iraq war stands at 2,977, including seven civilian contractors of the Defense Department, pushing the death toll above that of the September 11, 2001, attacks. An estimated 2,973 people were killed in the attacks on New York, the Pentagon and Pennsylvania.
President Bush has said the U.S.-led war in Iraq is part of a broader policy to battle threats overseas after the 9/11 attacks.
The president has said the Iraq invasion was a necessary part of the war on terror because Hussein's regime was a "clear threat" that posed "a risk that the world could not afford to take." Bush has said Hussein had "nothing" to do with 9/11.
Other developments
Iraqi and Iranian authorities slammed the United States on Monday for arresting several Iranians who were visiting Iraq. A U.S. official said the Iranians were suspected of involvement in attacks against Iraqi security forces. A spokesman for Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said Talabani had invited the Iranians to the country, and the president was "unhappy" about the arrests. An Iranian Foreign Ministry representative warned that "this action is not justifiable by any international rules." The arrests come amid tensions between Washington and Tehran over Iran's nuclear program. (Full story)
British and Iraqi soldiers raided an Iraqi police station Monday in the southern city of Basra where they suspected a rogue police unit was planning to kill 76 prisoners. After the prisoners were removed, the soldiers destroyed the police station, a British official said.
A bomb in a parked car detonated Monday near a parking lot in eastern Baghdad, killing 10 people and wounding 15 others, according to an Iraqi Interior Ministry official. Elsewhere Monday in the capital, a suicide bomber detonated explosives strapped to his body inside a bus on the city's northern outskirts, killing at least two people and wounding seven others, an Interior Ministry official said.
Iraqi police found 40 bullet-riddled bodies Monday in the capital, an Interior Ministry official said. Most of the bodies showed signs of torture; their hands were tied, and they were blindfolded. None of the bodies has been identified.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/12/26/iraq.main/index.html