Former Iraqi Vice President 'to Hang at Dawn'
Iraqi officials request transfer of Taha Yassin Ramadan from US custody for execution tomorrow.
One of Saddam Hussein's deputies will be hanged at dawn for crimes against humanity, it was reported tonight.
Iraqi government officials have asked the US authorities to hand over custody of Taha Yassin Ramadan, Iraq's former vice president, so that he can executed tomorrow.
Officials in the Iraqi prime minister's office said US authorities had not yet responded to the request for custody but were expected to as a matter of course.
An appeals court upheld the death sentence against him late last week, despite appeals from UN officials and international human rights groups.
Ramadan's family is appealing to the Iraqi president, Jalal Talabani, to halt the execution. But legal sources have told Reuters that they expect the sentence to be carried out tomorrow morning.
Ramadan was originally spared the gallows and sentenced to life in prison in the trial of former regime officials for the killing of 148 Shia Muslim men and boys in 1982, after an attempt on Saddam's life in the town of Dujail.
Two of his co-defendants in the Dujail case - his half brother and former intelligence chief Barzan Ibrahim, and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, former head of Iraq's Revolutionary Court - were executed in January. Saddam was hanged for the Dujail killings in December 2006.
Iraqi government officials have asked the US authorities to hand over custody of Taha Yassin Ramadan, Iraq's former vice president, so that he can executed tomorrow.
Officials in the Iraqi prime minister's office said US authorities had not yet responded to the request for custody but were expected to as a matter of course.
An appeals court upheld the death sentence against him late last week, despite appeals from UN officials and international human rights groups.
Ramadan's family is appealing to the Iraqi president, Jalal Talabani, to halt the execution. But legal sources have told Reuters that they expect the sentence to be carried out tomorrow morning.
Ramadan was originally spared the gallows and sentenced to life in prison in the trial of former regime officials for the killing of 148 Shia Muslim men and boys in 1982, after an attempt on Saddam's life in the town of Dujail.
Two of his co-defendants in the Dujail case - his half brother and former intelligence chief Barzan Ibrahim, and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, former head of Iraq's Revolutionary Court - were executed in January. Saddam was hanged for the Dujail killings in December 2006.
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