Saddam Hussein’s co-defendants granted stay of execution

The co-defendants of Saddam Hussein who also on death row - Barzan Ibrahim Al-Hassan and Awad Hamad Al-Bandar - were granted a stay of execution. (Damien McElroy, “ Hanging of Saddam’s half-brother postponed“, Telegraph (London).)

Yesterday Philip Alston, the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial executions gave a radio interview discussing the execution of Saddam Hussein. He commented that:

It’s a fine line between carrying out summary justice and carrying out justice according to the rule of law. The rule of law takes time, it gives lots of opportunities to people who we consider to be basically pretty nasty and not very deserving, and there’s always the temptation to take shortcuts. But as soon as you take those shortcuts, you come very close to the behaviour of any authoritarian regime, and certainly that of Saddam himself.

(Interview transcript.)