Iraq sentences former VP Ramadan to hang

IRAQ: Taha Yassin Ramadan, who served as vice president to executed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, was himself sentenced to death on Monday for crimes against humanity.

"The condemned Taha Yassin Ramadan shall be sentenced to hanging until death for committing deliberate killing crimes," judge Ali al-Kahachi said in a decision slammed by rights groups as politically motivated vengeance.

It followed a review by the Iraqi High Tribunal of an earlier life sentence imposed on Ramadan over the killing of 148 Shiites from the village of Dujail after an attempt on Saddam's life in 1982.

"This is in accordance with the higher criminal court and the penal court law," the judge said, adding that the new sentence would automatically be reviewed by a panel of appeal judges.

There is little doubt, however, that the panel will confirm the death sentence, as it was this body which sent Ramadan's case back to the court after judging his life term unduly lenient. Following the verdict, Ramadan cried out: "I swear to God I am innocent. May God support me. May God take revenge against everyone who rendered me injustice."

US-based Human Rights Watch had urged Iraq not to impose the death penalty because it said there was insufficient evidence linking Ramadan to the murders of the Dujail villagers in the 1980s.

"The tribunal found Ramadan guilty without evidence linking him to the horrific crimes committed in Dujail," said Richard Dicker of the organization's International Justice Programme.

"Ramadan was convicted in an unfair trial, and increasing his punishment from life imprisonment to death reeks of vengeance."

Amnesty International said the sentencing was political and "seems motivated more by vengeance than by any concern for justice and fair trial," the London-based group's Secretary General Irene Khan said.

Moscow, a staunch opponent of the US-led war on Iraq in 2003, warned that hanging Saddam cohorts was not helping to stabilise the violence-wracked country, news agency Interfax reported.

Baghdad, Tuesday, AFP