Slashdot Mirror
Saddam Hussein Sentenced to Death
indraneil writes "Saddam Hussein has been sentenced to death along with his half brother. Three Baath party officials charged with Hussein in the killings of 148 Shiite civilians have been sentenced to 15 years in prison, while a fourth has been cleared.
He is to be hanged inside 30 days from now. Saddam Hussein has been given 10 days to appeal against the decision.
His lawyer has warned to a bloodbath if the sentence is carried out."
What do you think the Iraqis believe?
I can only guess, but I imagine it's along the lines of this: If the sentence is justified by how many innocent Iraqis Saddam has killed, maybe he shouldn't be alone on the gallows. Too bad for him that he didn't have the foresight to exempt himself from international law and basic human decency beforehand.
It's theatre. The court he was tried in has no legal standing over crimes that were perpetuated before the court was created. It was in every sense of the word a kangaroo court. He should have been tried in The Hague at the International Court of Justice. The problem with trying him there is that the US would lose control over the proceedings and would not be able to use the trial for their own political gain.
I find it hard to believe that the judge who was removed for being sympathetic to Saddam was not done so at the behest/pressure of the US government.
And just as a little aside to this, your comment made me look back at /. posts from the day. One post from this discussion stands out for me...
I sympathise with your desire for revenge. But please try to bear in mind in the days and weeks to come that revenge against a large group of people will hurt many innocent people. Those responsible for this attack are unspeakably evil individuals, but don't get so caught up in your desire to punish them that you end up hurting yet more innocent people - for example the civilians of another country. God forbid this tragedy should get any worse; that's what will happen if the US seeks revenge against an easy national target such as Palestine or Afghanistan rather than hunting down the individuals responsible for this awful attack. Please don't add your voice to those calling out for blood. Enough blood has been spilled already. Let us find and punish the individuals responsible, but let us not make an easy scapegoat out of innocent civilians, whatever their nationality or religion.