The chief prosecutor in Saddam Hussein's trial says he could hang within months if he is found guilty of ordering the massacre of 140 people from the town of Dujail, the chief prosecutor in the former Iraqi dictator's trial has said.
And the ousted Iraqi dictator, who faces 11 other charges, will not be able to cheat the hangman by dragging out legal proceedings in a series of trials.
The prosecutor, Ja'afar Moussawi, said that under a law passed late last year, all death sentences must be carried out within 30 days of an appeal failing, regardless of any other charges.
"Once one of the accused on the Dujail case, for example, has been sentenced to death, then he won't be tried on other charges," Mr Moussawi said in an interview. "Other charges will automatically be dropped against that particular defendant, even if the case itself is brought against others."
Now there is a death row system done right. We should start that here. If you get sentenced to death you die within in 30 days not 10-20 years.
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Saddam is kind of a special case. The most important role his trials can play is to build a public record of his atrocities, to put the truth together in one place and give it an official seal. That's what the Nuremburg tribunals got right and the Hague with regards to Yugoslavia has not.
Whether it's generally a good idea to execute people within 30 days or not, Saddam should go to trial for every charge that is likely to lead to conviction. Iraq is a nation torn, and its healing won't go well if the past is lost to hasty justice.
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