The death sentence handed down by the Iraqi high criminal court to Tariq Aziz, Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister in Saddam Hussein's regime, is highly suspect on empirical grounds and unjustifiable for reasons of principle. The sentence has been given for Mr. Aziz's alleged persecution of members of the largely Shia Islamic Dawa Party, which is led by Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki.
Mr. Aziz is serving a sentence of 15 years for his part in the killing of 42 merchants in 1992, and a further seven years for the forced eviction of Kurds from northern Iraq in the 1980s. The latest trial was initiated after this frail and sick old man was handed over to the Iraqi government following the closure of the country's last United States-run prison.
This lends credence to the claim by Mr. Aziz's family that the Dawa Party is motivated by a desire for revenge. To make matters worse, defence lawyer Badee Izzat Aref says he was denied access to his client after the Iraqi government took over the prison. In fact, the defendant's fitness to stand trial is in doubt; he suffered a stroke before the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, and his health has deteriorated since.
Both his lawyer and independent analysts suggest that the savage sentence has been timed to divert attention from the WikiLeaks revelations of extensive torture by the occupying forces and the Iraqi security services. Moreover, Mr. Aziz could cause international embarrassment if he made public the details of the arms deals the Saddam regime signed with other countries during the Iran-Iraq war.
The grave doubts about the trial aside, the imposition of the death penalty runs counter to the global trend. On the entire European continent, only Belarus retains capital punishment; globally, 95 states have abolished it. Among the 58 countries that retain it, Russia's constitutional court has placed an indefinite moratorium on implementation; China's Supreme People's Court has ruled that it must be used only in extreme cases; and the U.S. Supreme Court is considering the constitutionality of lethal injection. The part played by Mr. Aziz in the atrocities and human rights violations of the Saddam regime does mean he must answer before the law and cannot expect to escape its penalties, provided they are civilised.
The handing down of the death penalty, however, on top of being a cruel and barbaric punishment by the norms of contemporary civilisation, is a mala fide exercise of power that bodes ill for emerging Iraqi democracy. Urgent international pressure must be brought on the Iraqi government to see to it that Mr. Aziz is spared the hangman's noose.
The Hindu
Mr. Aziz is serving a sentence of 15 years for his part in the killing of 42 merchants in 1992, and a further seven years for the forced eviction of Kurds from northern Iraq in the 1980s. The latest trial was initiated after this frail and sick old man was handed over to the Iraqi government following the closure of the country's last United States-run prison.
This lends credence to the claim by Mr. Aziz's family that the Dawa Party is motivated by a desire for revenge. To make matters worse, defence lawyer Badee Izzat Aref says he was denied access to his client after the Iraqi government took over the prison. In fact, the defendant's fitness to stand trial is in doubt; he suffered a stroke before the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, and his health has deteriorated since.
Both his lawyer and independent analysts suggest that the savage sentence has been timed to divert attention from the WikiLeaks revelations of extensive torture by the occupying forces and the Iraqi security services. Moreover, Mr. Aziz could cause international embarrassment if he made public the details of the arms deals the Saddam regime signed with other countries during the Iran-Iraq war.
The grave doubts about the trial aside, the imposition of the death penalty runs counter to the global trend. On the entire European continent, only Belarus retains capital punishment; globally, 95 states have abolished it. Among the 58 countries that retain it, Russia's constitutional court has placed an indefinite moratorium on implementation; China's Supreme People's Court has ruled that it must be used only in extreme cases; and the U.S. Supreme Court is considering the constitutionality of lethal injection. The part played by Mr. Aziz in the atrocities and human rights violations of the Saddam regime does mean he must answer before the law and cannot expect to escape its penalties, provided they are civilised.
The handing down of the death penalty, however, on top of being a cruel and barbaric punishment by the norms of contemporary civilisation, is a mala fide exercise of power that bodes ill for emerging Iraqi democracy. Urgent international pressure must be brought on the Iraqi government to see to it that Mr. Aziz is spared the hangman's noose.
The Hindu
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