CAIRO: Saddam Hussein was a despot but his crimes are dwarfed by those of the occupiers, the leader of Egypt s Muslim Brothers said Sunday after the ousted Iraqi leader was sentenced to death in Baghdad.
There is no doubt Saddam Hussein was a tyrant and a despot who harmed Iraq and generated the disastrous situation in which his country is now engulfed, Mohammed Mehdi Akef said.
But what are all these crimes that Saddam committed during his lifetime if you compare them to the crimes of the occupiers and those who help them? Nothing, he said.
Saddam was sentenced to death by hanging for willful killing , part of his indictment for crimes against humanity, for his role in ordering the deaths of 148 Shiite villagers in the village of Dujail, north of Baghdad.
But Akef argued that Saddam s trial, a key objective of the US administration that launched the military invasion of Iraq in March 2003, would do little to deter other dictators in the Arab world.
Our dictators simply don t learn any lessons. They do not fear God and they will therefore not be intimidated by a verdict, said the spiritual leader of the Brotherhood.
There was no immediate reaction from the Egyptian government to Saddam s sentencing.
Saddam is likely to have his sentence automatically reviewed by an appeals panel.
If these judges find grounds to question the judgment, Saddam will face another trial. If not, the sentence imposed Sunday by the Iraqi High Tribunal will stand and be carried out within 30 days.
Saddam and his seven co-defendants were put on trial for the killing of 148 Shiite civilians from the town of Dujail, where the then president escaped an assassination attempt in 1982.
Under the statutes establishing the tribunal in December 2003, both the defense and the prosecution have the right to appeal the verdict.
But any defendant sentenced to death or life imprisonment automatically sees the judgment and the verdict submitted to a panel of nine judges.
Such an appeal would need to focus on an error in procedure or non-respect for the law, and would be heard by the appeals bench of the tribunal.
A successful appeal would lead to a new trial.
If Saddam is condemned to death, the defense will appeal, Lebanese lawyer Bushra Khalil of Saddam s defense team said earlier this week.
If the original sentence is upheld, however, the tribunal statutes say that the sentence must be carried out within 30 days, a fact confirmed by public prosecutor Jaafar Al-Mussawi.
Saddam has also been on trial since Aug. 21 charged with ordering the Anfal Campaign in the Kurdish heartland of northern Iraq in 1987 and 1988 which resulted in the deaths of more than 180,000 people, prosecutors say.
As for the other trials, the tribunal will judge those defendants still living, since those who have been executed can no longer be prosecuted, Mussawi added in June. The statutes state that no authority, not even the president, can pardon anyone convicted by the tribunal or commute their sentences.
People condemned to death in Iraq are hanged if they are civilians or go before a firing squad if they are members of the armed forces.
Saddam, who was sentenced to death by hanging, had earlier said he would rather face a firing squad.
Remember that Saddam was a soldier and that therefore, if he is condemned to death, he should be shot and not hanged, he said on July 26, speaking of himself in the third person during his trial in Baghdad.
Amnesty International on Sunday condemned the death sentences handed to Saddam Hussein and two of his senior allies, describing their trial as a shabby affair, marred by serious flaws .
The London-based human rights group – which opposes capital punishment – said the trial should have helped the process of establishing justice and the rule of law in Iraq but was in fact deeply flawed and unfair .
This trial should have been a major contribution towards establishing justice and the rule of law in Iraq, and in ensuring truth and accountability for the massive human rights violations perpetrated by Saddam Hussein s rule, said Malcolm Smart, director of the Middle East and North Africa program.
In practice, it has been a shabby affair, marred by serious flaws that call into question the capacity of the tribunal, as currently established, to administer justice fairly, in conformity with international standards.
Amnesty charged that political interference undermined the independence and impartiality of the court , prompting the first presiding judge to resign and the appointment of another to be blocked.
The court also failed to take adequate measures to protect witnesses and defense lawyers, three of whom were killed during the trial, it added.
Saddam himself was denied access to legal counsel for the first year after his arrest, while there appeared to have been inadequate responses to complaints by lawyers throughout the judicial process, Amnesty said.
Every accused has a right to a fair trial, whatever the magnitude of the charge against them. This plain fact was routinely ignored through the decades of Saddam Hussein s tyranny, Smart continued.
His overthrow opened the opportunity to restore this basic right and, at the same time, to ensure, fairly, accountability for the crimes of the past. It is an opportunity missed.
