Reaction divided over Saddam sentence
Arabs were sharply divided today over the death sentence against Saddam Hussein, with some praising the verdict as heavenly justice but others – sharply critical of the US – claiming the decision was unfair.
Some analysts said the message behind the sentencing is that Washington is determined to continue its mission in Iraq and will not be intimidated by insurgents fighting it.
“If there had been no verdict, or if the verdict had been commuted, then it would have consolidated all talk about US failure in Iraq,” said Dawood al-Shirian, a Saudi journalist.
On the street, reaction was mixed. Some Arabs felt that Saddam, as a leader, should have had the freedom to run his country as he saw fit. They pointed to the rise of violence since he was removed from power by the US-led invasion in April 2003.
“If Saddam is condemned to death, then they must make it fair and sentence Mr. (US President George) Bush to death … and they should send Israel’s Ehud Olmert to death too because of what he did in Lebanon. If this is fair, let Saddam go to death,” said Amman jeweller Ibrahim Hreish, speaking passionately about the verdict.
“If Mr. Bush made the world a better place in the past four years, then let Saddam go to death,” he said.
Ziad al-Khasawneh, the former head of Saddam’s defense team said the death sentence had been expected right from the start of the trial.
“It was pre-planned. What has taken place in this trial right from the outset until tday’s verdict is illegal and is meant to undermine the legitimate president of Iraq and give legitimacy instead to the US occupation of an Arab country,” said al-Khasawneh, a Jordanian who sympathizes with the now-defunct Arab Baath Socialist Party in Iraq.
Iraqis living abroad were also divided over the sentencing of their former president, who ruled Iraq with an iron fist for almost three decades.
“He deserves the death penalty,” shouted Salah Hassan, 50, a Sunni Muslim Iraqi businessman who lives in Jordan.
“He is the cause of the bloodshed taking place in my country now,” he said as he sipped black tea at a smoked-filled coffee shop in the bustling and narrow streets of downtown Amman. “Saddam is a criminal and sentencing him to hang is just a very soft punishment.”
But Jassim Ali, a 29-year-old unemployed Shiite Iraqi who lives in Jordan, called the sentencing unfair.
“It’s too harsh.Why is Saddam being tried?” he said. ”The ones who should be tried and sentenced to death are the current Iraqi government leaders. They’re traitors. They’re American puppets.”
In Kuwait, the tiny emirate that Saddam occupied from August 1990 to February 1991, many were jubilant.
“This is justice from heaven. He should have been hanged a long time ago. This is the smallest punishment for someone who executed tens of thousands of people,” said Abdul-Ridha Aseeri, who heads the political science department at Kuwait University.
Aseeri said the sentence “should be a lesson to other Arab leaderships,” but he would not name any.
“For the first time in modern history, an Arab ruler or former ruler is put on trial,” Aseeri said.
Kholoud al-Feeli, 40, a Kuwaiti communications specialist, wanted Saddam to rot in jail instead of being hanged.
“Death to him is merciful. I wanted life in prison. He will die but people (he hurt) wll continue to suffer,” she said.
