As reported here, [f]ormer Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, sentenced to death for his role in 148 killings in 1982, will have his sentence carried out by Sunday, NBC News reported Thursday. According to a U.S. military officer who spoke on condition of anonymity, Saddam will be hanged before the start of the Eid religious holiday, which begins this Sunday.
The hanging could take place as early as Friday, NBC’s Richard Engel reported.
The U.S. military received a formal request from the Iraqi government to transfer Saddam to Iraqi authorities, NBC reported on Thursday, which is one of the final steps required before his execution. His sentence, handed down last month, ordered that he be hanged within 30 days.
Of course, his defense lawyers immediately started crying out to world leaders asking that they intervene, and prevent his hand over to Iraqi authorities, on the grounds that he is a prisoner of war. Now, don't get me wrong, but they are just doing their job for their client, and I wouldn't expect them to do anything less. But the thing is, Saddam was tried by the Iraqi courts, for crimes against Iraqi's. He was not tried at the International Tribune court in The Hague. He was tried right there in Iraq, found guilty by the Iraqi justice system, and had his sentence handed down by the Iraqi justice system.
The trial was under the proverbial microscope, and no one outside of his defense lawyers and some on the lunatic fringe had any complaints about how the process went. The verdict and sentence are well within legal bounds, and the Iraqi's are well within their rights to ask the US government to hand him over, so that the sentence can be carried out according to Iraqi law.
That sentence needs to be carried out as soon as it can be arranged.
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