BAGHDAD, Dec 26: Ousted Iraqi military dictator Saddam Hussein will be hanged within 30 days, an appeal court judge said on Tuesday, after confirming the former strongman’s sentence for crimes against humanity.

Speaking in front of reporters in Baghdad, Judge Arif Shaheen said the verdict was final and legally binding on Iraq’s government, which now has a month to get Saddam and two co-defendants to the gallows.

“It cannot exceed 30 days. As from tomorrow the sentence could be carried out at any time,” the judge said, after confirming that the sentences had been upheld and that the trial process was complete and without appeal.

“The appeals court has issued its verdict. What we have decided today is compulsory,” he said. Officials from Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki's government have previously said they will not hesitate to carry out the sentence, and that he and his fellow convicts will be hanged within days or weeks of the decision.

Saddam and six co-defendants were convicted on Nov 5 of crimes relating to the killing of 148 Shias whose village, Dujail, was subjected to a collective punishment after a failed 1982 attempt on the dictator's life.

Shaheen confirmed death sentences on Saddam, his half-brother Barzan Al Tikriti and former revolutionary court judge Awad Ahmed al-Bandar, as well as long jail terms on three more defendants.

He also said that Iraqi law stipulated that the sentences be carried out regardless of other ongoing legal proceedings.

Shaheen also said the appeals court had deemed the life sentence handed down to Saddam's former vice president Taha Yassin Ramadan too lenient, with trial judges asked to reconsider the “light” sentence, opening the possibility that he too could go to the gallows.—AFP