Washington, Dec. 17 (Reuters): President George W. Bush said yesterday Saddam Hussein deserves the death penalty — the “ultimate penalty” — for his iron-fisted rule in Iraq and that Iraqis should conduct the trial.
Bush made clear in an interview with ABC News Primetime that what happens to Saddam will be decided by the Iraqi people, in the wake of Saddam’s capture by US troops on Saturday.
“Let’s just see what penalty he gets, but I think he ought to receive the ultimate penalty... for what he has done to his people,” Bush said in excerpts from the interview to be broadcast last night.
“He is a torturer, a murderer, and they had rape rooms, and this is a disgusting tyrant who deserves justice, the ultimate justice. But that will be decided not by the President of the US, but by the citizens of Iraq in one form or another,” Bush said. A White House official said Bush was referring to the death penalty.
Executions are relatively routine in Texas, the state where Bush was governor before becoming President.
Iran’s reformist President Mohammad Khatami declared today that he was opposed to the death penalty, even in the case of Saddam Hussein. “I don’t like the death penalty, although if there is one case where there should be an execution, the fairest case would be for Saddam. But I would never wish for that,” the President said.
“If there is a way for a criminal to have a way out of it, I would not insist on his execution,” he added, saying: “I hope that he will have a fair trial.”
Bush said the Iraqis are “capable of conducting the trial themselves” and the White House expressed doubt that UN involvement would be needed in an Iraqi court. White House spokesman Scott McClellan said the UN has a vital role to play in terms of helping out in Iraqi elections and establishing a constitution. “But right now, in terms of conducting a fair trial of Saddam Hussein and one that withstands international scrutiny, those are discussions we’re having with the Iraqi people,” McClellan said.
Bush had hinted on Monday that he thought Saddam should face the death penalty, telling a news conference: “I’ve got my own personal views” on what should happen to Saddam, who plotted to kill Bush’s father, former President George Bush, in Kuwait in 1993.
Bush told the ABC programme he did not feel a sense of finality by the capture of Saddam.”The only thing that’s final about it is that the Iraqi people don’t have to worry about Saddam ever again. But there’ no finality for me. There’s a lot more to be done in Iraq,” he said.
