Iran calls for Saddam sentence to be carried out

Iran today called for the death sentence on the former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein to be carried out, saying he was a criminal who deserved to die.

“We hope the fair, correct and legal verdict against this criminal … is enforced,” government spokesman Gholam Hossein Elham told a news conference in Tehran.

On Sunday, an Iraqi court in Baghdad sentenced Saddam and two other senior members of his regime to death by hanging for crimes against humanity for the killing of 148 people in the northern town of Dujail. The victims were detained and tortured after a 1982 attempt to assassinate Saddam as he visited the town.

An Iraqi appeal court is expected to rule on the guilty verdict and death sentence by the middle of January.

“He is a criminal dictator. No doubt about it,” Elham said of Saddam.

The spokesman said Iran hoped Saddam would continue to be tried for other alleged crimes against humanity including waging the 1980-88 war against Iran.

“We hope no pressures will be made not to carry out this verdict,” Elham said.