Sister of condemned Saddam aide seeks clemency

0 Comments | AFP, January, 2007

TRIPOLI (AFP) — The sister of one of two former aides of Saddam Hussein who are to be hanged for crimes against humanity has issued a plea for his life to be spared, saying the sentence was illegal. "I call on Arab and Muslim chiefs of state to intervene to stop this illegal and unjust judgment," said Amal Ibrahim, sister of Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti, who was head of intelligence under the former Iraqi dictator.

"The court that ordered the hanging is illegal and its judgment has no value," she told AFP in Tripoli where she lives. Barzan, who is Saddam's half-brother, and Awad Ahmed al-Bandar, the former chief judge of revolutionary courts, are due to be put to death at dawn on Thursday. They were convicted, along with Saddam, for the massacre of 148 Shiites in the 1980s in...