The swirling controversy over the execution of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is threatening to trigger a backlash at the United Nations. Italy, which has condemned the death penalty as "barbaric", is trying to bring the issue before a sharply divided world body by calling for a "universal moratorium" on capital punishment.
On Wednesday, the U.N.'s High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour made an unusual public appeal to Iraqi President Jalal Talabani asking him to spare the lives of two former colleagues of Saddam Hussein who are due to be executed later this week. The two officials, Awad Hamad al-Bandar and Barzan Ibrahim al-Hassan, were co-defendants of the former Iraqi president who was executed last Saturday.
"The concerns I expressed just days ago with respect to the fairness and impartiality of Saddam Hussein's trial apply also to these two defendants," Arbour said.
On Wednesday, the U.N.'s High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour made an unusual public appeal to Iraqi President Jalal Talabani asking him to spare the lives of two former colleagues of Saddam Hussein who are due to be executed later this week. The two officials, Awad Hamad al-Bandar and Barzan Ibrahim al-Hassan, were co-defendants of the former Iraqi president who was executed last Saturday.
"The concerns I expressed just days ago with respect to the fairness and impartiality of Saddam Hussein's trial apply also to these two defendants," Arbour said.
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