Al Maliki pleased as Sunnis complain

Baghdad: Iraq's government said Saddam Hussain had got what he deserved when an Iraqi court sentenced him to hang, but a senior Sunni Arab member of parliament dismissed yesterday's verdict as political.

The discrepancy highlighted sectarian divisions that have turned increasingly violent since US forces overthrew Saddam in 2003.

"He is facing the punishment he deserves," Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki said in a televised address to the nation two hours after the verdict.

The Islamic Party, Iraq's biggest Sunni Arab party, said that the government should have stopped the bloodshed in the country before sentencing Saddam.

"The government should have put food on the table of the starving people, stopped all criminal acts, death squads and sped up the national reconciliation before it puts all criminals before and after the fall of [Saddam's] regime on trial."

A senior Sunni Arab parliamentarian, who asked not be quoted by name for fear of sectarian reprisals, said, however: "This is a political verdict from a political court." Al Maliki said last month that Saddam's execution could not come soon enough, fuelling charges of political interference. But yesterday he emphasised the independence of the court system.

"Justice is stronger than its enemies and the law will win," Al Maliki said. "For me his sentence does not represent anything because executing him is not worth the blood he spilled ... but it may bring some comfort to the families of the martyrs."

"Executing Saddam will not bring a loved one back from the dead or a senior cleric like Sadr," he added, referring to Ayatollah Mohammad Sadeq Al Sadr, who was killed in 1999.

Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih, a Kurd, said: "The court has proven to be professional and just. Saddam was given the justice he denied to the people of Iraq over 35 years."