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Hanging Video Aftershocks

Iraq Delays Execution of Saddam's Co-Defendants

Baghdad has decided to postpone hanging Saddam Hussein's half brother and his former chief justice -- apparently bowing to pressure from the United Nations as well as protests over the clandestine video of Saddam's death. The two men had been expected to hang on Thursday.

Iraq has not set a date to hang Saddam Hussein's two co-defendants, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's office said Thursday morning. Reports on Wednesday suggested that the two would hang on Thursday -- just after the Islamic festival of Eid al-Adha -- but the United Nations has appealed to Baghdad not to execute the men.

An aide to Maliki, who declined to be named, said the execution of Saddam's two co-defendants had been delayed due to "international pressure." He wouldn't say when the executions might take place, but Baha al-Araji, a Shiite member of the Iraqi parliament, told Agence France-Presse, "I am sure it will be done on Sunday."

Iraq's government has faced both internal Sunni protests and international outrage over the abrupt hanging of Saddam Hussein on Saturday, the first day of Eid. It didn't help that someone took a secret video of the execution that showed guards, who announced themselves as Shiites, tormenting Saddam. The video has aggravated sectarian tension in Iraq, and Baghdad said Wednesday that two guards were in custody for recording it.

Bowing to international pressure?

Saddam's half-brother, Barzan Ibrahim, and Awad al-Bandar, a former chief justice of Saddam's Revolutionary Court, were condemned to death along with the former dictator for the murder of 148 Shiites in 1982. Baghdad resisted pressure from the UN last week to spare all three men and hanged Saddam on Saturday. Prime Minister Maliki's decision to execute him on the first day of Eid, in fact -- as observed by Sunnis, but not by Shiites, who start celebrating a day later -- has rattled the Muslim world.

Now the UN's High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, has asked Baghdad to spare the remaining two men. Ban Ki-Moon, the UN's new Secretary General, is also supporting the calls. Since the UN officially opposes the death penalty, Ban had raised eyebrows on Tuesday when he said -- just hours into his new job and in the wake of Saddam's hanging -- "the issue of capital punishment is for each and every member state to decide."

A spokeswoman for Ban clarified on Wednesday, "The secretary general strongly believes in the wisdom of Article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which states everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person." She added that Ban would like to see all countries give up the death penalty. "But that will be a slow process."

msm/reuters/ap