The procedure through which ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein will appeal against his death sentence began on Monday, with officials saying he may face the gallows within the next few months. On Sunday, the 69-year-old was sentenced to hang for committing crimes against humanity by ordering the deaths of 148 Shias from Dujail. His half-brother and intelligence chief Barzan Al-Tikriti was also sentenced to death, as was Awad Ahmed Al-Bandar, who was chairman of the “revolutionary court” that ordered the Shias’ execution. Saddam’s former vice president Taha Yassin Ramadan received a life sentence, while three Baath party officials from Dujail received 15 years each and a fourth was cleared. Under Iraqi law, Saddam, Barzan, Bandar and Ramadam have an automatic right to appeal against their death and life sentences, and the process for this began on Monday. A US official close to the court said that the defendants could file their appeals over the next 30 days. “From now to the next 10 days, the trial chamber can hold the file (ruling), but in these 10 days, it has to forward the file to the appeal chamber,” said the official. He said that on receipt of the file, the appeal chamber had to immediately forward it to the prosecutor’s chamber.
“The prosecutor gets 20 days to present his views on the file after which he gives the file back to the appeal chamber, which then starts deliberating on it,” said the US official. “There is no set period for the appeal chamber’s deliberations, but after the appeal chamber’s decision is final, and if it upholds the trial chamber’s rulings, the sentence has to be carried out in 30 days.”