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Jan 10 2007

Talabani calls for execution delay

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Arab World

By Agencies

Awad Ahmed al-Bandar, a former chief judge under Saddam, is due to be executed soon [AFP]

Jalal Talabani, the president of Iraq, has said that he would like the executions of Saddam Hussein's two co-defendants to be delayed.

Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti, Saddam Hussein's half brother, and Awad Hamed al-Bander, a former judge, were due to be executed within a month of losing their appeal on December 26.

"In my opinion I think we have to wait or delay the other executions to see what the circumstances are," Talabani said on Wednesday.

However, under the Iraqi constitution and the rules of the High Tribunal, Iraq's president has no power to reduce or block the sentence against the two men.

The two men were sentenced to death for crimes against humanity on 5 November for their part in the killing of 143 Shia men in 1982.

Few powers

Asked at a news conference on Wednesday about the two pending executions, Talabani said that although he opposed the death penalty "on principle", he had no power to intervene.

"I don't know the date of the executions," he said.

Talabani - who for two-decades helped lead a Kurdish revolt against Saddam - has few real powers under the Iraqi constitution and his role is mainly ceremonial.

Death warrants signed

Nuri al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister, has already signed the death warrants and the government has said the executions have been held up by technical issues.

Al-Maliki's decision to execute Saddam on the first day of the Muslim festival of Eid, followed by the appearance of a video showing the former president being taunted on the gallows by Shia officials, have inflamed sectarian tensions in Iraq.

Talabani has previously said that he had asked Iraq's government to delay Saddam's execution until after Eid had ended to avoid aggravating sectarian tensions.

The United Nations has urged Iraq not to carry out the two remaining executions.