Will Saddam Hussein ever get executed?

Personally I don't think there is the slightest chance that he will be tried, found guilty and executed. Far too messy for the authorities, execution looks too barbaric and makes him a martyr.

Frankly I don't think they even want the expense, aggro and open stage of a trial.

I reckon his health will magically "take a turn for the worse" in the next 6-9 months, and he will be dead of supposed "natural causes" in the next 12 months.

Thomas Mesereau arrived in The Hague early this morning. Who knows?

@Johnny English

Would you like to see him executed?

I agree.

I think he'll die of 'ill health' within the next couple of years.

The Americans won't want him to reveal their dealings with him throughout the 80's. Especially as there are still several key figures (like Donald Rumsfeld) with influential positions today.

Dunno really - don't hold a strong opinion although I think this would perhaps help the martyr thing too much.

The authorities like to see him a bit downtrodden, as in those original deliberately degrading films of his medical check. So I guess I would agree with bumping him off gently...nothing exciting or dignified...just a boring old "stroke" or "heart attack".

Found guilty and exectuted, I hope.

I reckon he'll "commit suicide" (wink wink nudge nudge) before his trial...that lad has too much dirty laundry that the US administration wouldn't want aired.

what's the latest on the Bin Laden hunt these days???
are they still hunting him? Dubya promised to find him didn't he?
or has he been conveniently forgotten now they bagged Saddam?

you forgot one option in your poll:
- Who gives a f***.

Bin Laden is currently messing about on the pakistan/afganistan border. Probably.

It was the Americans who captured him, they had plenty of time to kill him and keep it quite if they had wanted.

America hardly supported him the 1980s, when you compare the French, Chinese and Russians. Remember the war in 1991? Weren't those MIG and Mirage fighters, Russian & Chinese tanks, French radar, Russian guns and Artillery and Russian SCUDs?

Hmm, I wonder if Saddam knows anything about that food for oil scandal the he was so involved in. I wonder if he could shed some light on the Russian and French positions on the war...

They're going to execute Saddam, he's made too many enemies in his own country. They just won't stand for it.

It was better for them to capture him alive - and 100% prove that it is him or we would get all the silly stuff we got before with the sons...the usual conspiracy theories that it was only one of his "doubles" they killed and all that.

I think the thinking world is now 99% convinced that it really is Saddam they have caught, so now they can afford to let him slip off his mortal coils in the next 12 months or so. Even if it does get to trial they will never execute.

He will get killed by a "stray" US bomb and the US will blame the insurgents for it. Who said that?

Our resident conspiracy theorist.

And the fallout will cause TT to implode creating a dense core of ...denseness probably.

Can anyone educate me on how the law roughly applies in cases like this? Bit sad to admit I am lost on the subject of International Law etc.

As an ignoramus it would seem that he theoretically could be tried under perhaps 4 possible sets of laws:

1. International Law - as in Milosevic, or I guess Nuremberg war crimes etc.

2. The previous IRAQI laws in place at the time of the offences.

3. Current IRAQI laws in place under the current regime.

4. Islamic religious laws?

Now it sounds like it is option 3 in this case - that he will be tried by the current regime under their laws (e.g we know they added the death penalty to their statute last year - and had 3 convictions just recently).

But what I cannot understand - in theory Saddam probably had immunity from prosecution under his own laws at the time as "head of state" or in effect a licence to do as he wished etc.

So how can a new regime prosecute for a crime committed before their laws even existed? As an extreme example it would be like a new UK government adding the death penalty for speeding...they could not go back and execute all previous speeders???

so the trial starts today.


wonder which method of execution tho...would it depend in which State his case is tried?

Uhhh... he's not being tried in or by the USA if that is what you mean. Iraqi law is federal in this respect; no differentiation across the country.

faces death by hanging

Did you not read your own link?

THE COURT

The marble-lined court, below, decorated by chandeliers, is in a building where Saddam used to store gifts. It had not been decided yesterday whether the proceedings will be televised live or with a delay. It was also not known whether the five judges would be named or pictured. Some witnesses are to give evidence from behind a curtain to protect their anonymity, while observers and journalists will be behind bulletproof glass. Saddam and his co-defendants are being tried before an all-Iraqi special tribunal, set up in 2003 by the US-led authorities and now overseen by the elected government. It consists of trial chambers with five judges in each. The judges will hear the case without a jury. The prosecutor and Saddam's defence lawyer may propose questions for the judges to ask. US and British legal experts are on hand as advisers.

He sure deserves to be put behind bars for the rest of his miserable life, but I don't believe in capital punishment, not for him nor for any other war criminal. Two wrongs don't make a right and I don't know whether the families of his victims would miss their loved ones less by knowing that he has been killed as well. I just don't know. Interesting case, though.

I would tend to agree. Seeing him break rocks in some prison courtyard with a ball and chain would be more humiliating than getting rid of him.

However execution would arguably help to stifle parts of the insurgency that still hope to bring him back to power. In other words, he has to die.

An update as to what's been going on with his trial...


Saddam on Trial

Many people fear an increase in violence should Sadam get executed.

You can argue both ways, however the "martyr factor" would fade after a while in my opinion, if he's alive however there would always give certain people that hope that he could be freed and lead them again. Look at what happened with Napoleon (Elba vs. St. Helens).

I have to agree with JW here, but furthermore, as the article in my previous post stated, it has to be a fair trial and shown to the Iraqi nation in this way otherwise it could severely backfire

Fair Trial? Yeah right. Imagine this scenario: Saddam found not guilty.

Then what??? Can you imagine what kinda disaster that would be for Tony and The Retard? Basically proving that Saddam was not guilty of anything, proves our soldiers died in vain.

So I will gladly give 1000-1 on Saddam being found not guilty. It cannot happen. So you canot really say it will ever be a fair trial. It is fixed from the start.

There are are whole bunch of legal eagles who think that it could easily get thrown out of court (imagining it will be a fair trial) because under the Iraqi law at the time, he didn't do anything illegal.


It's a bit late for worrying about a disaster...it can hardly get much more disastorous


Agreed, I think he'll be hung, but the trial needs to be shown to be fair to the Iraqi peeps, if not then it'll add fuel to their hatred of the bullshit occupation

"There are are whole bunch of legal eagles who think that it could easily get thrown out of court (imagining it will be a fair trial) because under the Iraqi law at the time, he didn't do anything illegal." Timmeh

It's about the same as the Nürnberg trials and the nulla poena sine lege thing (no punishment without law), there were no laws against lots of things that the defendants were charged with. Most of them were sentenced anyway. I think Saddam will put up a fight, be convicted and rot in prison. Any votes on returning him to the hole in the ground and throwing away the map?

Saddam Vows not to Return to 'unjust' court.
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Saddam Hussein shouted Tuesday that he will not return "to an unjust court" when it convenes for a fifth session the following day. As the end of the session, when the judges decided to resume the trial Wednesday, Saddam suddenly shouted: "I will not return. I will not come to an unjust court! Go to hell!"

Saddam also complained that he had no fresh clothes and had been deprived of shower and exercise facilities. "This is terrorism," he said.

Hopefully

I think he will be found guilty but not sentenced to death (for reasons other peeps have already outlined) ... also I am against capital punishment so would hope that the death penalty is not used ... having said that I think he will most likely croak (and not through natural causes) either in prison or during transit to his court appearances.

What will be the difference? It is often called 'natural casues', but there seems to be very little natural about it.

@PES - Ok you are right about the fact that neither official execution or being bumped off in prison (or on the way to court) are 'natural causes' ... what I meant was: I don't think he will be officially sentenced to death and I don't think he will die of illness ... someone will take his death into their own hands. (My money is on a bomb or a sniper's bullet). Personally I would prefer him to rot in prison but I don't see that happening.

To be honest ... I simply can't believe that the US still imposes the death penalty. It is disgusting.

I know what sort of responses this will invoke ... but please save your "he deserves it" or "think of how many people died under Sadam Hussein's regime" arguments. Such arguments are not valid. Two wrongs don't make a right, and that's my final word on this subject.

Disclaimer for all those who have a tendency to "misread" posts: I do not support the actions of Saddam Hussein and recognise that terrible things happened under his leadership. I am simply an opponent of the death penalty, and that is what this post is about!

Bit irrelevant really as the US are not trying him.

Ähm, yes ... my post got a bit mixed-up there. I simply assumed that the majority of posters in support of the death penalty for Saddam were American (the English and Australian constitution does not support the death penalty) ... and reacted a little to that (stating that it's disgusting that the US still supports the death penalty.) Hope that explains my misleading post!

He is now to be hung within the next 30 days. Civil war is about to go into overdrive.

hanged
[/grammar Nazi mode off]

No doubt. And just watch those numbers on the Iraqi body count database add up: Iraqi Body Count Database. Meanwhile, I'm going to finish eating my Christmas cake while I watch TV.

The end is nigh!

So glad I will be missing the show that kicks off when he is gone could make all that has gone before look like a cake walk.

The deed is done.

And a car bomb went off in Madrid.