Saddam to hang at dawn - officials
Source: Reuters
(correcting call to prayer time 5:30 a.m. instead of p.m.) (Adds dawn prayers) By Mariam Karouny BAGHDAD, Dec 30 (Reuters) - Saddam Hussein will hang at dawn on Saturday, Iraqi officials told Reuters, setting a dramatic end for a leader who ruled Iraq by fear for three decades before a U.S. invasion and his conviction for crimes against humanity. As the call to prayer echoed out across a dark and bitterly cold Baghdad at 5:30 a.m. (0230 GMT) on one of the holiest days of the Muslim calendar, a cleric and other official witnesses were preparing for Saddam to mount the scaffold within minutes, a U.S.-funded Iraqi television channel said. Earlier, senior officials told Reuters they were expecting to see the former president hang between 5:30 and 6 a.m. "They just called to tell me to be ready to attend the hanging at 5:30 a.m. (0230 GMT)," said a court official whose presence is demanded by law. The execution was planned by 6 a.m., he added, although he did not know where it would happen. A senior politician in the Shi'ite Muslim majority behind Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said he would also attend: "It will take place by 6 a.m.," Bahaa al-Araji told Reuters. An early execution will delight Maliki's Shi'ites but may anger Saddam's resentful Sunni minority, as well as some Kurds who were hoping to see him convicted of genocide against them. Washington may also be hoping it marks the turning of a new page in Iraq as U.S. President George W. Bush prepares to unveil a new direction in Iraq policy amid public anger at the war. Senior Iraqi government officials, who have the final say on the timing, were unavailable for comment. One aide said Maliki had ended a meeting in the small hours with U.S. officials but would not say whether they agreed the former president could be hanged before a week-long Muslim holiday starts on Saturday. Maliki gave an execution order on Friday, with approval from the president and justice minister, said a close party ally. But the feast of Eid al-Adha from noon could have delayed the hanging if final details, including the site of the gallows and fate of the body, had not been agreed with the Americans. U.S. officials could not immediately be reached for comment. Defence lawyer Issam Jhazzawi told Reuters Saddam's exiled daughters in Jordan were bracing for his imminent death. "The family are praying for him every minute and are calling on God that He let his soul rest in peace among the martyrs," he said. His daughter Raghd, who is exiled in Jordan, "is asking that his body be buried in Yemen temporarily until Iraq is liberated and it can be reburied in Iraq," a source close to the family said by telephone. VENUE STILL SECRET Several other officials said they had been told to gather early in the fortified, U.S.-defended Green Zone government compound in Baghdad that was once Saddam's palace complex. A television station run by Maliki's party said a gallows was ready on a parade ground dominated by a triumphal arch -- formed of crossed swords held in hands modelled on Saddam's own. But other sites are also possible for any execution. Seeking an 11th hour reprieve, defence lawyers asked a U.S. federal court to order a halt to the execution because Saddam is a defendant in a civil case in Washington. But a U.S. judge denied the move, saying Saddam was not being held in U.S. custody and as a result her court lacked jurisdiction. Earlier, another defence attorney said he was told Saddam was already in Iraqi hands, although U.S. officials denied that. In any case, a senior Iraqi official told Reuters, U.S. troops would give Saddam up only "when he climbs the gallows". The appeals court this week upheld a Nov. 5 conviction for crimes against humanity over the killings of 148 Shi'ite men. Judge Munir Haddad said Saddam's half-brother Barzan al-Tikriti and former judge Awad al-Bander would also hang on Saturday. With millions in Iraq's now dominant Shi'ite Muslim majority thirsting for revenge for Saddam's three decades of oppression, U.S. officials have been concerned since they captured Saddam three years ago to ensure he is treated with judicial propriety. U.S. troops are also on alert for trouble from insurgents among Saddam's Sunni minority. While there were some protests at November's verdict by a U.S.-sponsored court, few Sunnis have deep feelings about the fate of the fallen strongman. The governor of Salahaddin province said on Friday if Saddam was executed he would declare a four-day curfew in Tikrit, Saddam's home town. There was no word on whether Baghdad would be under curfew, as regularly happens at tense moments. An execution at the start of Eid would be highly symbolic. The feast marks the sacrifice the prophet Abraham was prepared to make when God ordered him to kill his son and many Shi'ites could regard Saddam's death as a gift from God. Such symbolism could further anger Sunnis, resentful of new Shi'ite power. Saddam was found guilty over the killing, torture and other crimes against the Shi'ite population of the town of Dujail after Shi'ite militants tried to assassinate him there in 1982. Saddam, who said in court he had no fear of dying, had a farewell meeting with two of his half-brothers on Thursday, his lawyers said, adding the fallen dictator was in high spirits. He has been held at a U.S. base near Baghdad airport. Saddam's conviction was hailed by U.S. President George W. Bush as a triumph for the democracy he promised to foster in Iraq after the 2003 invasion. With U.S. public support for the war slumping as the number of American dead rapidly approaches 3,000, Washington is likely to welcome the death of Saddam. International human rights groups criticised the year-long trial, during which three defence lawyers were killed and a chief judge resigned complaining of political interference. (Additional reporting by Suleiman al-Khalidi in Dubai and Alastair Macdonald and Claudia Parsons in Baghdad)
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