LONDON, Dec 30: International human rights groups have deplored the execution of Saddam Hussein, saying it marked “a significant step away” from the rule of law and would do nothing to halt bloodshed in Iraq.

While organisations like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch agreed that Saddam should have been held to account, they voiced deep concern that he faced the death penalty. This was compounded by concerns over alleged political interference in the judicial process which condemned Saddam to the gallows. He was sentenced to death by an Iraqi court last month after the year-long trial over the 1982 killings in Dujail.

London-based Amnesty said it was universally opposed to the death penalty, which it described as the “ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment”.

The trial was a “deeply flawed affair”, but should have been “a major contribution towards establishing justice and ensuring truth and accountability,” Malcolm Smart, director of its Middle East and north Africa programme, said.

“The execution appeared a foregone conclusion, once the original verdict was pronounced, with the appeals court providing little more than a veneer of legitimacy for what was, in fact, a fundamentally flawed process,” he added.

“It will be seen by many as nothing more than “victor’s justice” and, sadly, will do nothing to stem the unrelenting tide of political killings.”

Like Amnesty, New York-based Human Rights Watch also raised concerns about the transparency of Saddam’s trial. Last month, it published a report saying that the court's impartiality had been threatened by interventions from the Iraqi government.

Key evidence was not disclosed to the defence and defendants' rights to question prosecution witnesses had been undermined, the study added, also accusing the presiding judge of bias.

The execution “marks a significant step away from respect for human rights and the rule of law in Iraq,” the organisation said in a statement. “The test of a government’s commitment to human rights is measured by the way it treats its worst offenders,” added Richard Dicker, director of Human Rights Watch's international justice programme.

“History will judge these actions harshly.”

The International Federation of Human Rights said the execution had prevented a wider examination of crimes linked to Saddam. “One explanation is that the United States, which pulled all the strings in this process, preferred to see him tried for a purely Iraqi crime, rather than seeing all the international links from which he benefited played out in court,” said Patrick Bedouin, its honorary president.—AFP