Fearless
Saddam vows sacrifice for Iraq
Middle East Desk Report
DUBAI—Saddam Hussein said his execution would be a sacrifice for Iraq
and called on Iraqis to unite and fight U.S. forces, in a letter
obtained on Wednesday.
“Here I offer myself in sacrifice. If God almighty wishes, it (my soul)
will take me where he orders to be with the martyrs,” Saddam said in the
hand-written letter obtained from his defense lawyers in Jordan.
“If my soul goes down this path (of martyrdom) it will face God in
serenity.” The defense team said the letter was written shortly after
Saddam was sentenced to death in November for crimes against humanity
during his 24-year rule, and before the Iraqi High Tribunal appeals
court on Tuesday ratified the lower court’s ruling.
“You have known your brother and leader as you have known your own
family. He has not bowed down to the tyrants and remained a sword
against them,” Saddam said.
“Oh great people, I call on you preserve the values that enabled you to
be worthy of carrying out shouldering the faith and to be the light of
civilisation,” the letter said. “Your unity stands against falling into
servitude.”
Saddam added: “Oh brave, pious Iraqis in the heroic resistance. Oh sons
of the one nation, direct your enmity toward the invaders. Do not let
them divide you ... Long live jihad (holy war) and the mujahdeen against
the invaders.” Following the appeals court decision, Saddam faces death
by hanging within 30 days.
Saddam Hussein called on Iraqis not to hate the U.S.-led forces that
invaded Iraq in 2003 in a farewell letter posted on a Web site
Wednesday, a day after an appeals court upheld the former dictator’s
death sentence and ordered him to be hanged within one month.
One of Saddam’s attorneys, Issam Ghazzawi, confirmed to The Associated
Press in Jordan that the letter was authentic, saying it was written by
Saddam on Nov. 5 — the day he was convicted by an Iraqi tribunal for
ordering the killings of scores of Shiite Muslims in the city of Dujail
in 1982. “I call on you not to hate because hate does not leave space
for a person to be fair and it makes you blind and closes all doors of
thinking,” the letter said. Ghazzawi said the letter was released on
Tuesday and published on Saddam’s former Baath Party’s Web site on
Wednesday. The deposed leader said he was writing the letter because his
lawyers had told him the Iraqi High Tribunal which tried his case would
give him an opportunity to say a final word.
“But that court and its chief judge did not give us the chance to say a
word, and issued its verdict without explanation and read out the
sentence — dictated by the invaders — without presenting the evidence,”
Saddam wrote.
“Dear faithful people,” Saddam added, “I say goodbye to you, but I will
be with the merciful God who helps those who take refuge in him and who
will never disappoint any honest believer.” The letter was released as
Saddam’s last legal means of avoiding execution came under question. |
