Leader of Hussein's Regime to be Executed

Baghdad- Iraq's top diplomat under Saddam Hussein, Tariq Aziz, will be executed next year after US forces leave Iraq. Aziz's lawyer, Badi Arif, claims the decision "will drag this country to the edge of the abyss."

Saad Yousif al-Muttalibi, an adviser to Iraq's prime minister, said a new law under consideration requiring death sentences to be ratified by the president within 15 days of their being handed down is favored by the three sectarian groups: Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds.

Aziz was captured in April 2003 after the US-led invasion that toppled Hussein and appeared frail during testifying in Hussein's 2006 trial on war crimes charges. In October 2010, Aziz was sentenced to death by the Iraqi High Tribunal for his role in eliminating religious parties during Hussein's regime.

Amnesty International and The Vatican have opposed the death penalty, preferring other methods of punishment in an attempt to "promote reconciliation and reconstruction of justice and peace in a country that has suffered so much."

Source: http://www.cnn.com/2011/12/05/world/meast/iraq-aziz-execution/index.html?iref=allsearch

Reliability: 9