Saddam faces death by hanging in 30 days

Baghdad: An Iraqi appeals court yesterday upheld a ruling that Saddam Hussain should hang for crimes against humanity and said the sentence should be carried out in the next 30 days.

"The appeal court has approved the death sentence. They [the government] have the right to choose the date starting from tomorrow up to 30 days. After 30 days it will be an obligation to implement the sentence," the head of the Iraqi High Tribunal, Arif Abdul Razzaq Al Shahin, told a news conference.

Officials from Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki's government have previously said they will not hesitate to carry out the sentence, and that he and his fellow convicts will be hanged within days or weeks of the decision.

Saddam and six co-defendants were convicted on November 5 of crimes relating to the killing of 148 Shiites whose village, Dujail, was subjected to a collective punishment after a failed 1982 attempt on the dictator's life.

Shaheen confirmed death sentences on Saddam, his half-brother Barzan Al Tikriti and former revolutionary court judge Awad Ahmad Al Bandar, as well as long jail terms on three more defendants.

He also said that Iraqi law stipulated that the sentences by carried out regardless of other ongoing legal proceedings, including Saddam's trial for genocide against the Kurdish population of northern Iraq.

Iraq's head of state, President Jalal Talabani, must ratify all capital sentences, but he has previously said he would leave such a job to his vice-presidents because of his personal opposition to the death penalty.

However, a spokesman for the Iraqi High Tribunal said that under the constitution cases of international jurisdiction cannot be overturned by a presidential pardon.