David Edwards and Ron Brynaert
London Telegraph
Friday, December 29, 2006

American military officers have ordered Saddam Hussein’s lawyers to collect his personal effects as the Iraqi government prepared to carry out the sentence of death by hanging on the deposed dictator as early as today.

Nuri al-Maliki, Iraq’s prime minister, told the families of some of Saddam’s victims that the execution, confirmed on Boxing Day when his appeal was rejected, would happen without delay. The court directed that the former president should be hanged within 30 days.

He was convicted in November along with his half-brother Barzan al-Tikriti and and Awad Ahmed al-Bandar al-Sadun, a former chief judge of the revolutionary court, of slaughtering 148 Shiites in the northern city of Dujail in 1982.

“Our respect for human rights means we must implement the execution of Saddam and his aides. Those who reject Saddam’s execution are undermining the dignity of the martyrs of Iraq,” said Mr al-Maliki.

“After the endorsement of the court ruling, no one can prevent the execution sentence against Saddam. There will be neither a revision nor a delay in the implementation of the execution sentence against Saddam and his aides.”

At midday today, US officials said that Saddam remained in American custody and would be transferred to the Iraqi authorities on the day he was to hang. American and Iraqi officials indicated that the execution would take place tomorrow but did not rule out that it could be earlier.

There was confusion as some Iraqi aides said Saddam would not be put to death before the Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday, which begins at the weekend and will last until at least Thursday.

Bosho Ibrahim, Iraq’s deputy justice minister, said Saddam should not be hanged for weeks. “The law does not say within 30 days, it says after the lapse of 30 days.”

Khalil al-Dulaimi, Saddam’s lawyer, threatened that the dictator’s death would be the trigger for a surge in violence.

“If the American administration insists in handing the president to the Iraqis, it would commit a great strategic mistake which would lead to the escalation of the violence in Iraq and the eruption of a destructive civil war,” he said.

The Pentagon confirmed today that eight American troops had been killed in Iraq this week, bringing the total since the 2003 invasion just nine short of the 3,000 mark.

Some 103 troops have been killed so far in December, making it the bloodiest month in the war since 105 died in October.

Brig Gen Abdel Karim Khalaf, head of Iraq’s interior ministry command centre, said Iraqi forces were on high alert. “Certainly, this is a big event, putting into effect the execution of this serial killer. We will take measures proportionate to this event. We will put all our forces on the streets so that no lives are jeopardised.”