Do Not Hang Saddam

Posted on November 20th, 2006 filed in Ann Clwyd, Misc, Politics

The trial of Saddam Hussein before the Iraqi High Tribunal for crimes against humanity was marred by so many procedural and substantive flaws that the verdict is unsound, Human Rights Watch said in a 97-page report released today.

“The proceedings in the Dujail trial were fundamentally unfair,” said Nehal Bhuta of Human Rights Watch and author of the report. “The tribunal squandered an important opportunity to deliver credible justice to the people of Iraq. And its imposition of the death penalty after an unfair trial is indefensible.”

Human Rights Watch opposes the death penalty as inherently inhumane punishment and says that executing Hussein while other trials are ongoing will also deprive many thousands of victims of their day in court.

Ann Clwyd MP chairs the campaign group INDICT which has collected much evidence of the crimes committed under Saddam Hussein’s regime.

Ms Clwyd, who is also Chair of the UK All-Party Parliamentary Human Rights Group, has welcomed the guilty verdict however she is opposed to the death penalty.