WASHINGTON, Jan 3: Jailed former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein told two of his lawyers that if he is sentenced to death for war crimes, he would rather die by firing squad than by hanging, The Washington Times said on Tuesday.
“I don’t value this life that much. Every human being has his time to go,” lawyer Issam Ghazzawi said Mr Saddam told him when they met in a basement of a Baghdad courthouse on Dec 7 during a break in his trial.
Mr Ghazzawi said he and former US attorney-general Ramsey Clark raised the possibility that the former dictator might be sentenced to death if convicted of war crimes.
“I am the commander in chief ... I prefer it to be by firing squad,” Mr Saddam answered, according to the lawyer, adding that it was “the right way” to execute a military leader.
“Of course I’m not guilty, but I know they want me dead,” Saddam said. “Threatening me with death doesn’t mean anything,” he told the two lawyers. “I don’t care less. The life of any one Iraqi is no less valuable than mine.”
During his five-hour meeting with Mr Ghazzawi and Mr Clark, Mr Saddam also praised the insurgency, saying it had prevented US attempts to “formulate a new world”.
“They tried in Iraq and failed badly, so by standing against (US President George W.) Bush we are protecting other countries and regions of the world. Now the US will think a thousand times before daring to attack another country,” he said, according to Mr Ghazzawi.
Mr Saddam also predicted that US occupation of Iraq would not last much longer.
“The Americans with their allies will fly out of Iraq very soon, and their puppets will leave even before the Americans,” Mr Saddam said. Mr Saddam’s trial is set to resume on Jan 24.
OPINION POLL: Four years after the Sept 11, 2001, attacks, a significant number of Americans still believe now-discredited justifications for the invasion of Iraq, according to a new poll released on Tuesday.
The Harris Interactive survey found that 41 per cent of US adults thought that Saddam Hussein had strong links to Al Qaeda, although that number was sharply down from the 64 per cent who stated the same belief one year ago.—Agencies
