From today's Arab News online (abridged):
Saddam Hussein, back in court two days after being sentenced to hang for crimes against humanity, urged Iraqis to seek reconciliation. Invoking the prophet Muhammad and Jesus, he told a court trying him for genocide against Kurds, "I call on all Iraqis - Arabs and Kurds - to forgive, reconcile, and shake hands."
Up to 180,000 Kurds were killed by Hussein's regime, many by gas attacks.
The ousted President's fate after the earlier trial is now in the hands of an apellate chamber. No execution is likely before next year.
Meanwhile, some 250 Jordanian lawyers staged a one-hour strike to protest against the death sentence, while in Iran a government spokesman called on Iraq to carry it out, saying the dictator, who waged an 8-year war with Iran, was a criminal who deserved to die. Gholam Hussein Elham told a news conference in Tehran, "We hope the fair, correct and legal verdict against this criminal is enforced. We hope no pressure will be applied on the government not to carry out this verdict."
