CPM stocks up its ammo over Saddam verdict

KOLKATA: CPI-M would put pressure on the Congress-led UPA government to protest against and condemn the death sentence handed out to former Iraq president Saddam Hussein, said party Politburo member and West Bengal Left Front chairman, Biman Bose on Monday.

“India’s relation with Iraq has always been congenial and our government should protest against the death sentence served on the former Iraq president. We feel Saddam’s trial was incomplete and the UPA government should not remain silent on the issue,” Mr Bose said. He added that the two-day meeting of CPI-M Politburo beginning in Delhi on November 14 would take up the issue and find out ways and means to force the Centre to condemn the death sentence.

Meanwhile, in West Bengal, the Left Front has taken up a series of programmes to denounce the erstwhile Iraqi leader’s death sentence. Mr Bose said a grand rally would be organised in Kolkata on November 16. The decision to hold state-wide protests was taken at an urgent meeting of the Left Front here on Monday.

Meanwhile, judges have put Saddam Hussein’s appeal process into motion as Baghdad found itself once more under round-the-clock curfew after the ousted president’s death sentence stirred Iraq’s sectarian tensions.

Saddam was sentenced to hang by the Iraqi High Tribunal, which found him guilty on Sunday of crimes against humanity in the case of 148 Shiite civilians killed in revenge for an 1982 attempt on the then Iraqi leader’s life. The verdict served only to deepen Iraq’s bitter religious divide, with Shiites celebrating it as a victory against their former oppressor and some Sunni Arabs protesting at this latest humiliation to the ousted regime.

Tribunal spokesman Raed Juhi said the court has 10 days, starting Monday, within which it must submit its ruling justifying Saddam’s execution to an appeals committee. This panel will then invite input from the prosecution. Defence lawyers also said they would submit their arguments. “My experience with this court shows that there is no benefit to gain from appealing because this court is political; nevertheless, we will appeal,” lead defence lawyer Khalil al-Dulaimi said.