- BAGHDAD - Iraq's government
reluctantly reinstated the death penalty for crimes including murder, kidnapping
and drug running on Sunday, saying the move was a necessity and would last
until stability was restored.
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- Minister of State Adnan al-Janabi said the measure
was effective immediately, but there was confusion about whether it could
be applied retroactively, casting doubt on whether Saddam Hussein could
be put to death if found guilty of crimes.
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- "This is the most difficult day of my life,"
Bakhtiar Amin, Iraq's human rights minister, told reporters as he and Janabi
unveiled the law. Amin, exiled under Saddam, has been an ardent campaigner
against the death penalty for several decades.
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- While extremely common during Saddam's rule, capital
punishment was suspended by the occupying US authorities last year. Since
taking office on June 28 this year, Iraq's interim government has hinted
repeatedly at reintroducing it.
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- Janabi said the measure would not come into force
until published in the official gazette, probably in the coming days.
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- He said the measure was being imposed with a strong
degree of reluctance, but was necessary in Iraq's highly unstable situation
and was something that many Iraqis favoured.
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- "This law is to help protect the Iraqi people
in the face of an onslaught of indiscriminate murder. I think it may help,"
he said, adding that it would remain in force until the security situation
was deemed more stable.
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- As well as murder, kidnapping and drug running, the
law would also cover crimes such as rape, attacks on transport convoys
and the financing and execution of terrorism, according to an Arabic text.
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- Its introduction comes a day after the government
announced an amnesty for guerrillas who have committed minor crimes, making
it part of a two-pronged approach to staunching the 16-month uprising -
a hard line coupled with accommodation.
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- Amin said he hoped the law would have to be enforced
as little as possible and emphasised that it could, like other laws, be
overturned by a two-thirds majority in the National Council, a body due
to be elected later this month.
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- "The intention is that this law will be implemented
for exceptional cases ... We are not applying it out of conviction."
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- Last month, Iraq's Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari
came under pressure from the European Union in Brussels to oppose the reinstatement
of capital punishment, a measure most EU countries abolished decades ago
but which is used in the United States.
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- Close US ally Britain said it opposed the death penalty
on principle. "If the Iraqi government has reintroduced the death
penalty we will lobby them to abolish it as we would do with other states
that have the death penalty," a spokesman at London's Foreign Office
said.
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- Amin acknowledged the opposition of European leaders,
but said Iraq was not Europe.
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- "It is true that many European countries today
have abolished the death penalty ... but they didn't do it right away after
the Second World War," he said, pointing out that Iraq's recent history
was like Nazism, Fascism and Stalinism combined.
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- As well as confusion over when the law comes into
force and whether it applies to criminals caught from that date or cases
coming before a judge from then, there was also no clarity on what method
of execution would be used.
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- Under Saddam, hanging and the firing squad were common.
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- "I personally hate to see anyone put to death,"
said Amin. "There is nothing humane, there is no humane way of doing
it."
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