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Sentence for Saddam Preached Down
Saddam Hussein was sentenced on Sunday to death penalty by hanging. The court found him guilty of the murder of 148 Shiite people in Dujail village, where an assassination attempt against Hussein was made in 1982. According to Iraq’s law, the sentence is to be carried out no later than 30 days after it was pronounced.
The Vatican denounced death penalty to which former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein was sentenced on Sunday. Cardinal Renato Martino, head of the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, said in his official statement: “Punishing for one crime by committing another crime means killing out of revenge. It means we still adhere to the talion law - eye for eye, tooth for tooth.”
According to the cardinal, there are many ways to punish a man for his crimes without resorting to capital punishment. “Modern civilized society has long ago made the choice to give up death penalty,” said Cardinal Martino, “Life is given to man by God, and only God has the right to take it away.”
According to AFP, the cardinal has also expressed regret that Hussein’s case was heard not in the International Tribunal in The Hague, which does not sentence to capital punishment for crimes against humanity.
The New York Times published an editorial on Monday, denouncing the death penalty sentence for Saddam Hussein. It calls for postponing the verdict’s execution.
The newspaper believes the trial should be postponed until the end of the second trial which will show whether Hussein is guilty of anti-Kurd crimes. The New York Times thinks it is not enough to punish the dictator, -- the sentence should heal and bring to reason the nation which was “so cruelly divided”. And it is impossible to do until law and justice triumph in Iraq, the editorial said.
The newspaper criticized George Bush’s actions. “President Bush exaggerates when calling that trial ‘a landmark on Iraq’s way from tyranny to law and order’.” The editorial expressed regrets that influential Shiite and Kurd politicians “received the right to use Hussein trial to their own advantage”. The newspaper said that one of such politicians is Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.
The EU is against death penalty for Saddam Hussein. Finland, as the EU’s chair-country, called for leaving Hussein alive. Finland said the EU is against capital punishment in all cases and in any circumstances.
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