Iraqi president won't sign Tariq Aziz death order

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq's president said Wednesday he won't sign off on a death penalty sentence against one of Saddam Hussein's closest confidantes, Tariq Aziz (left), setting the stage for a possible battle over the fate of the man known as the international face of the dictator's regime.

The decision to prosecute and execute members of Saddam's regime is a source of controversy in Iraq where many members of the country's Shiite majority, who suffered under the ousted Sunni-dominated regime, want vengeance for past crimes.

Aziz was Christian and not Sunni, but many in the Sunni community view his conviction and those of others as proof they'll forever be held responsible for actions carried out years ago. The Vatican has urged Iraq to not carry out the death sentence and said it may try to intervene diplomatically to halt it.

During an interview that aired Wednesday with France 24 TV, President Jalal Talabani cited a number of reasons for refusing to approve the execution.

"I cannot sign an order of this kind because I am a Socialist," Talabani said. "I feel compassion for Tariq Aziz because he is a Christian, an Iraqi Christian."

"In addition, he is an elderly man — aged over 70 — and this is why I will never sign this order," Talabani said in Arabic through a translator. He was speaking in Paris, where he attended a meeting of the Socialist International this week.

Talabani has refused to sign off on death sentences for other former regime members, including former defense minister Sultan Hashim al-Taie, who signed the cease-fire with U.S.-led forces that ended the 1991 Gulf war and remains in U.S. custody.

However, it was not immediately clear whether Talabani's opposition would necessarily spare Aziz's life. Under the constitution, the president is supposed to ratify death sentences, but there are mechanisms for the execution to be carried out through parliament.

Justice Ministry spokesman Abdul-Sattar Bayrkdar told The Associated Press that death penalties can be carried out regardless of the president's refusal to sign an execution order.

"If the president refuses to sign an execution that is not a veto on a verdict," Bayrkdar said.

The 74-year-old Aziz was the highest-ranking Christian in Saddam Hussein's inner circle. He was convicted and sentenced to death by hanging on Oct. 26 for his role in persecuting members of the Shiite religious parties that now dominate the country.

Aziz, who surrendered to U.S. forces about a month after the war started in March 2003, has already been convicted in two other cases, receiving a combined 22 years in prison. In an interview with The Associated Press this summer, Aziz predicted he would die in prison.

In the long-running case for which he received the death penalty, Aziz was accused of being part of a campaign of persecuting, killing and torturing members of the Shiite opposition and religious parties banned under Saddam. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is a member of one of the religious parties central to the case.

The death sentence came two months after Aziz was transferred from U.S. to Iraqi custody. Under Iraqi law, Aziz had 30 days to appeal the death sentence.

Aziz's supporters have argued that he was not responsible for the crimes for which he's accused but is being persecuted simply because he was a member of Saddam's regime.

Aziz's eldest son, Ziad, praised Talabani for his position.

"I want to reassert that my father's execution sentence was a political decision. Therefore, it's null and void," said Aziz's son, speaking from neighboring Jordan where he lives. "As a family, we thank the president and we appreciate his decision."

The pursuit of criminal cases against former members of Saddam's regime demonstrates the deep hatred that exists even today among the country's current Shiite leadership and within the Shiite population as well.

Source: AP, November 17, 2010

Comments

Tibetan protesters executed for Lhasa riot killings

Tibetan exiles have reported the first executions of those convicted for rioting last year in Lhasa, with at least two people put to death in a rare implementation of capital punishment in the restive region. Two Tibetans convicted of arson and sentenced to death in April were executed on Tuesday morning in Lhasa, reported The Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy, which is based in the Indian town of Dharamsala—the home in exile of the Dalai Lama. It said that Lobsang Gyaltsen and Loyak had been sentenced to death for their part in setting fire to five shops in the Tibetan capital, killing seven people, in the riot that rocked Lhasa in March last year. Officials say that 21 people — including three Tibetan protesters — died in the violence, which embarrassed Beijing just as it was preparing to stage the Olympic Games and prompted a security crackdown across the Himalayan region. The body of Mr. Gyaltsen had been returned to his family and then submitted to a river burial—an un...

Iran: Delara Darabi has now been scheduled for execution

Delara Darabi has now been scheduled for execution, according to the Iranian newspaper Etemad on 18 April, according to another source on 20 April. She was convicted of murdering a relative when she was 17. Unless the Judiciary intervenes, she can now escape execution only if the woman’s entire family accept payment of diyeh, or blood money. One of the familly is said to be undecided. Iran is a state party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which prohibit the use of the death penalty against people convicted of crimes committed when they were under 18. RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals to arrive as quickly as possible: - expressing concern that Delara Darabi is in imminent danger of execution for a crime committed when she was under 18; - calling on the authorities to halt the execution of Delara Darabi immediately, and commute her death sentence; - reminding the authorities that Iran is a state part...

Florida | Former prison warden who oversaw executions urges corrections workers to not participate in them

Recently Florida carried out the execution of Dusty Spencer , a 74-year-old Marine veteran, for the murder of his wife, Karen, in 1992. It was the ninth Florida execution this year. For their own sake, I urge Florida’s corrections workers to refuse to carry out another one. Before you dismiss me as some soft lefty, you should know that I am an Air Force veteran. I voted for Ron DeSantis for governor twice—and for Donald Trump for president three times.

Iran: Prisoner of conscience Mohsen Amir Aslani hanged for ‘different interpretation of Quran’

Mohsen Amir Aslani NCRI - The Iranian Resistance calls on the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Human Rights Council, as well as all international human rights organizations to strongly condemn the execution of prisoner of conscience Mr Mohsen Amir Aslani on charges of “corruption on earth; changing Islam’s principles and secondary laws; and new interpretation of Quran”. It further calls for adoption of binding decisions against the growing number of arbitrary executions by the religious fascism ruling Iran. Mr. Amir Aslani, 37, who had been in prison since eight years ago, was once sentenced to four years in prison which was later commuted to twenty-eight months. However, as more fabricated charges were brought against him, the head henchman Judge Salavati condemned him to death. The Iranian regime has refraining from handing over the body of this prisoner to his family through stonewalling and offering contradictory answers to them. The execution...

Iraq: Saddam Hussein Execution was Moved Forward Because of Gaddafi Rescue Plans, Judge Says

Saddam Hussein's execution on December 30, 2006 The execution of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was accelerated due to the belief that the then Libyan leader, Muammar El-Gaddafi, had a plan to rescue him from prison, Judge Mounir Haddad revealed today. Hadad, who presided over the trial of Hussein, revealed to the Al-Arabiya Satellite Channel Point of Order program new details of the trial against the former president and his last moments before being hanged, including the 'health and welfare' votes for the magistrate himself . According to his testimony, the application of the death penalty to Saddam Hussein was precipitated because authorities knew that El-Gaddafi - later murdered in 2011 - was allegedly trying to bribe US guards who guarded him to rescue him from prison. He added that, contrary to previous reports from the local and US press, former Iraqi President Jalal Talabani gave his 'implicit approval' for Hussein's execution, an...

Tennessee Reduced Training in IV Placement in New Lethal Injection Protocol

The protocol that took effect in 2025 sheds new light on Tony Carruthers’ botched execution, when Dr. Mark Fowler spent nearly an hour trying, and failing, to place a secondary IV line Tennessee’s lethal injection protocol adopted a year and a half ago appears to include reduced training in IV placement. That’s the part of the process prison staff failed to complete last month before aborting the execution of Tony Carruthers. Filings from ongoing litigation over the protocol show concerns about the executioners’ training and qualifications aren’t new.

Halfway through the year, Saudi Arabia has already executed nearly 100 people

Almost 100 people executed so far this year as dozens more remain on death row for drug-related offences Saudi Arabian authorities have executed nearly 100 people so far this year, including at least 61 for drug-related offences, the latest of which was on 18 June. In response, Dana Ahmed, Middle East Researcher at Amnesty International, said today: “It is halfway through the year and Saudi Arabia has executed nearly 100 people, a grim milestone exposing the authorities’ unconscionable and unlawful use of the death penalty. Of the 96 people put to death already in 2026, an astounding 61 were executed for drug-related offences; 39 of them were foreign nationals and 22 Saudi nationals.

U.S. | Lethal injections are more likely to be botched, experts say

Tony Carruthers, a Memphis man on death row, is one of hundreds of people in the U.S. whose executions did not go as planned When the Tennessee Department of Corrections botched Tony Carruthers’ execution, it wasn’t surprising to Austin Sarat. He’s been researching and writing about “state killings” for decades. “Of all of the methods of execution used in the United States over the last 140 years, lethal injection has the highest rate of being botched,” said Sarat, a professor of law and politics at Amherst College. He said an execution is botched when it deviates from standard operating procedure or official legal protocol.

Florida executes Dusty Ray Spencer

74-year-old man becomes oldest inmate executed in modern Florida history A 74-year-old man convicted of fatally stabbing his wife became the oldest person executed in Florida’s modern history on Thursday, and the state is scheduled to execute another 74-year-old inmate next month. Dusty Ray Spencer was pronounced dead at 6:10 p.m. following a 3-drug injection at Florida State Prison near Starke. Spencer was convicted of the 1992 stabbing death of his wife Karen.

As Idaho Reinstates Firing Squad, Volunteers Sought for Executions

The state becomes the first in the U.S. to make the firing squad the standard method of capital punishment Idaho is opening a new phase in the administration of capital punishment in the United States, returning to the firing squad as the default method of execution. The decision reintroduces a system that has been abolished or abandoned in most of the country and is now being reorganized through a formal and highly structured framework. The new death penalty protocol State authorities have begun recruiting volunteer law enforcement officers to take part in executions. The operational model includes three primary shooters assigned to carry out the execution, two alternates, and one operations coordinator. All participants will remain anonymous, known only to the prison warden and deputy warden.

Death Penalty News

Search This Blog