Mariam Karouny, Reuters in Baghdad
Wednesday September 7, 2005
The Guardian
Saddam Hussein has confessed to crimes and should be hanged 20 times, his successor as Iraq's president said yesterday while confirming that he will not sign a death warrant.
"Saddam deserves a death sentence 20 times a day because he tried to assassinate me 20 times," Jalal Talabani said in a lengthy interview on Iraqiya state television, recalling his days as a Kurdish rebel leader fighting the authorities.
Saddam had confessed to crimes, he said in answer to a question, though it was not clear what details Talabani had of a legal process that is intended to be separate from Iraqi politics.
"There are 100 reasons to sentence Saddam to death," he said, two days after the Shia- and Kurdish-led government confirmed that the deposed leader will go on trial on October 19, along with several aides, accused of killing 143 Shi'ite villagers after a failed assassination bid at Dujail in 1982.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1564319,00.html