Iraqis hope to hang Saddam deputy at dawn

The Iraqi government asked US authorities this evening for custody of Saddam Hussein’s former deputy to hang him at dawn tomorrow, officials in the prime minister’s office said.

An appeals court upheld the death sentence against Taha Yassin Ramadan late last week.

He was Saddam’s vice president when the regime was ousted by the US-led invasion in 2003.

Ramadan was originally spared the gallows and sentenced to life in prison in the trial of former regime officials for the killing of 148 Shiites in 1982, after an attempt on Saddam’s life in the city of Dujail.