Rush to hang Saddam seen as legally questionable
By Steve Negus

FT
January 1 2007 18:00

Iraq’s government hanged Saddam Hussein only three days after his
final appeal was overturned on December 27, even though it had 30 days
to do so and the decision to rush the deposed dictator to the gallows
was legally questionable.

Most interpretations of Iraqi law would require the signature of
Iraq’s President Jalal Talabani to carry out the execution, or
possibly one of his two vice presidents. Instead, Prime Minister Nuri
al-Maliki himself signed the warrant ` an exception that was
apparently approved by the special tribunal that convicted Mr Hussein,
but irregular nonetheless.

In off-the-record statements to the US media at the weekend, US
officials distanced themselves from the decision. The New York Times
reported that officials had been `privately incensed’ by the rush to
execution, although an unnamed Iraqi official was quoted as saying it
had only gone ahead following a late-night meeting between Iraqi and
US representatives at Mr Maliki’s office.

The US has long insisted that the trial and punishment of Saddam
Hussein were a fundamentally Iraqi process.