Lawyers Appeal for Saddam Co-defendants

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Lawyers representing two of Saddam Hussein's co-defendants are calling on the international community to continue urging the Iraqi government to spare the lives of the two men.

According to a report in the Jurist, Curtis Doebbler, an American lawyer representing Awad Hamed al-Bandar appealed to individuals, communities, groups, and countries everywhere to do all they can to stop the executions.

Awad Hamed al-Bandar was a chief justice in Saddam Hussein's Revolutionary Court. Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti was Iraqi's intelligence chief. The two men were sentenced to death on Nov. 5 for the killing of 148 Sunni Muslims from the northern Iraqi town of Dujail after a failed 1982 assassination attempt against Saddam in that city. The verdict against them was upheld by the appellate court on Dec. 26 and they were scheduled to be executed on Dec. 31 with former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein.

Doebbler reiterated that every independent expert who has reviewed the Dujail trial which was held before the Iraqi Special Tribunal found the trial to be seriously flawed and unfair.

"An execution after an unfair trial -- even in a country that has the death penalty -- is as illegal as a summary, extrajudicial and arbitrary execution, and torture, cruel or inhumane treatment or punishment," Doebbler said.

http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?article_class=3&no=338237&rel_no=2