Iraq president wants delay in Saddam case hangings

BAGHDAD, Jan 10 (Reuters) Iraqi President Jalal Talabani today said he would like the executions of Saddam Hussein's two co-defendants to be delayed.

Saddam was executed on December 30 but the hanging of his half brother, Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti, and former judge, Awad Hamed al-Bander, has yet to happen, though the government has said it is determined to carry out the sentence.

Asked at a news conference about the two pending executions, Talabani reiterated his well known position that he is against the death penalty ''on principle''.

''In my opinion I think we have to wait or delay the other executions to see what the circumstances are,'' Talabani said, without giving any more explanation of his reasons.

''I don't know the date of the executions,'' he said.

Under the constitution and the rules of the Iraqi High Tribunal which sentenced Saddam and the two others to death for crimes against humanity, the president has no power to reduce or block the sentence.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has already signed the death warrants and the government has said the executions have only been held up by technical issues.

Maliki's decision to rush through Saddam's execution on the first day of a religious holiday, and an illicitly filmed video showing the former president was taunted by Shi'ite officials on the gallows, have inflamed sectarian tensions.

The United Nations has urged Iraq not to carry out the two remaining executions.

Government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh yesterday said a decision on the date of the hangings would be taken within a few days.

Before Saddam's execution, officials say Maliki secured a letter from Talabani's office noting that the president had no power to intervene in the case.

REUTERS KD HT1822