Iraqi PM: Saddam must be executed

Iraq’s prime minister today said those who opposed the execution of Saddam Hussein were insulting the honour of his dead victims.

““Our respect for human rights requires us to execute him, and there will be no review or delay in carrying out the sentence,” prime minister Nouri Maliki said in comments released by his office.

“Those who reject the execution of Saddam are insulting the souls of the martyrs of Iraq,” Maliki’s office quoted him as saying. He made the remarks in a meeting with families of people who died during Saddam’s rule.

On Tuesday, an Iraqi appeals court upheld Saddam’s death sentence for the killing of 148 people who were detained after an attempt to assassinate him in the northern Iraqi city of Dujail in 1982. The court said the former president should be hanged within 30 days.

“Nothing and nobody can abrogate the ruling,” Maliki said.

Saddam Hussein remained in American custody this morning, pending his handover to Iraqi authorities for execution, said Bosho Ibrahim, Iraq’s deputy justice minister.