Invitation to execution

The US and Iran supported the verdict of Saddam Hussein

The Baghdad trial of the Iraqi leaders, overthrown in the spring of 2003 thanks to a US military operation, was intended as a show trial. But it did not become an exemplary one - what is happening is too controversial and politicized, there is too much eastern chaos in the process itself, and the “achievements” of the United States and its new Iraqi allies in this defeated country are too deplorable. It is not for nothing that the death penalty by hanging was announced for Saddam two days before the elections to the US Congress. Republicans reject suggestions that the coincidence is no coincidence. But Iraq is precisely the Achilles heel of George W. Bush; American Democrats built their election campaign on its military failures.

Based on the scale of the crimes charged against Saddam Hussein, the death sentence handed down to him on Sunday November 5 by the Iraqi High Criminal Tribunal was expected. The forces of good defeat evil - this is how US President George W. Bush perceives the situation in a simplified and idealized way. He welcomed the verdict, calling it "a huge achievement for Iraq's young democracy." The United States is the model for this democracy, and therefore the very fact of imposing the death sentence shocked not American, but European leaders. They hastened to remind that in civilized Europe the death penalty has been abolished.

But George Bush's joy over the verdict was unexpectedly shared by Iran, which spent eight years at war with Iraq in the 1980s. In a statement, Iran's Foreign Ministry said that "the minimum punishment that Saddam Hussein deserves is the death penalty." Tehran remained silent about the maximum punishment.

Moscow took a cautious position of “non-interference in the internal affairs of Iraq.” The Russian Foreign Ministry said that the trial of a citizen of any country, no matter what position he previously held, is “an internal matter of this state” and should be conducted “without prompting from the outside.” At the same time, Russia expressed "concerns that instability in Iraq will increase." Just this weekend, four Russian specialists were wounded while working on the restoration of the Najibiya thermal power plant near the city of Basra in southern Iraq. They became victims of a mortar shell that flew into the facility while militants were shelling a British military base located next door.

Up to 60 people die every day in Iraq. According to the American Johns Hopkins University, since the US invasion of Iraq in March 2003, casualties among the civilian population of this country ranged from 400 thousand to 900 thousand people, although the White House believes that no more than 50 thousand civilians died in Iraq persons During the same time, about 2840 were killed and over 21 thousand US military personnel were wounded.

The situation in Iraq is dramatic and is developing according to the worst-case scenario. And Saddam's death sentence became an additional factor contributing to the division of the country. The entire Arab-Muslim world is tense, where many perceive the trial, at which Saddam constantly shouted “Allah is Great!”, as “an offensive performance according to the American script.” In Iraq, residents of Sunni settlements and neighborhoods, at best, remain sullenly silent or go out to protest demonstrations - this is happening in Saddam's homeland in the city of Tikrit. But many Shiite Muslims and Kurds do not hide their jubilation. Iraqi Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said in an address to the nation that “the ex-dictator deserved to die on the gallows.”

The Vremya Novostei newspaper knows from eyewitnesses many stories of families affected by Saddam's regime, especially among the Kurdish minority. Kurdish women whose husbands, fathers or sons have died in prison, when asked what fate they expect for the former president, answer: “Death.” However, supporters of the ousted dictator, especially among Sunni Muslims, refer to the fact that with an iron hand he could keep the country from civil war, saving the people from even greater misfortunes.

Kurdish President Jalal Talabani, who has the right to pardon his predecessor and has previously spoken out against his execution, said that when the possibilities for appeal are exhausted, no additional sanction from him, Talabani, will be required to carry out the sentence. If the appeal is rejected, then by law the sentence must be carried out within 30 days thereafter. Lawyers, according to Vremya Novostey, are still preparing an appeal and will submit it to the appeal commission of the High Criminal Tribunal of Iraq.

Hussein, who came to the court hearing on Sunday, as always, in a shabby but neat, strict dark suit and with the Koran in his hands, was found worthy of death in only one case - about the village of Dujeil. In 1982, the motorcade of the Iraqi president passed by this Shiite village and was then fired upon by unknown assailants. The country's security service attacked the village with punitive action. As a result, 148 people were killed or disappeared. This and other acts of Saddam were already well known in those years in Washington and other capitals of the world. But neither country then, nor years later, during the peak of repression against the Kurds, cut off relations with oil-rich Iraq. Saddam fell out with Washington only in 1990, when he made a mistake in military and political calculations and dared to commit aggression against neighboring Kuwait.

Two more were sentenced to hanging in the same case on Sunday - Saddam Hussein's half-brother and ex-head of his intelligence service Barzan al-Tikriti and the former head of the Revolutionary Tribunal Awad al-Bandar. Former Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan received a life sentence. Of the four remaining defendants, provincial leaders of the Ba'ath Party (Arab Socialist Renaissance Party), three received 15 years each, and one, a low-ranking party leader, Muhammad Azavi Ali, was acquitted and released from custody in the courtroom.

Bushra Khalil, a representative of the international team of lawyers, linked the verdict to the US congressional elections taking place today. According to the lawyer, “President Bush wanted to take advantage of this in the interests of the election campaign,” and the verdict itself is “an open mockery of justice.” Ms. Khalil recalled that during the trial, which began in October 2005 and was replete with procedural violations (the lawyers were not even given a copy of the verdict), four lawyers of the accused died violent deaths - they were shot in Baghdad. The criminals have not been found.

The trial of Saddam Hussein and his associates will not end here. By the end of the year, a verdict is expected in the parallel trial on the extermination of more than 180 thousand Iraqi Kurds in the 1980s during Operation Anfal (Spoils). Other cases will continue to be considered.

Elena SUPONINA, Alexander SAMOKHOTKIN