CAIRO: While reaction to the execution verdict handed down to Saddam Hussein has been split along sectarian lines in Iraq, Egyptians had mixed reactions.
“I’m for the verdict in essence but I’m against the form, Samer Soliman, assistant professor of political economy at the American University in Cairo said.
“I don’t have any doubt that that he is a criminal that deserves the maximum sentence, Soliman continued, stressing he is against capital punishment.
“There was an attempt to show that the trial was fair, appearance wise. but in essence it seems that the features that make it a fair trial were absent, he added.
Wael Khalil, socialist activist and a member of the opposition group Kefaya, stressed that he doesn’t empathize with Hussein, but does not trust the verdict or the process.
“To put tyrants on trial is good, but it should be done by the public not by another tyrant. the occupation, Khalil explained.
He said he doubts if the Americans are deceiving any one with their achievements in Iraq. “No one is seeing the rule of law being applied there. This also includes the unplanned results of the trial. “If [the Americans] are trying to rebuild [Hussein’s] image, they are doing a great job, he added.
Soliman explained that Egyptians would object to the fact that it was an occupational force that organized that trial, and hence it is not-credible. “But others like Saddam. . They support tyranny. Thus far, most public voices have focused on the comparison between Hussein and the occupation. 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, the Muslim Brotherhood leader, said in a statement on Sunday. 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. Al-Masry Al-Youm editor Magdy El Gallad said the verdict is nothing but “an electoral bribe for the current American administration. “These are political calculations not a conspiracy, he wrote in Al-Masry.
“To hell with the American administration, whether it is going with Saddam or alone; Iraq is the one that will pay the price anyway, he wrote, “Also, the Middle East will fully pay the price with [Iraq] because we accepted to be a card on the table of American elections for long decades.
Egyptian journalist Sarah Khorshid agrees. “The media and the Bush administration use the Saddam trial as a card to play up when it meets with their agenda, she explained, “It resurfaces when there is a scandal for the Republican Party.
“Now it happens with the Republicans’ last chance at the midterm elections, we get the verdict.
El Gallad added, “To hell with Saddam, but where would Iraq go at the end of the dark American tunnel?
Khorshid also belittled the verdict in comparison to the fate of Iraqis. “The crisis in Iraq dwarfs the verdict; the situation there is very bad . We have gotten used to daily shedding of blood.
“When you think about it .. It is worse than any situation anywhere else in the world.
