Saddam niece urges Arab leaders to save her father

DUBAI, Jan 12 (Reuters) A niece of Saddam Hussein urged Arab leaders to help save her father from the gallows after the ''public assassination'' of her uncle.

''I plead to Arab leaders ... to save the necks of my father and uncles. What happened is enough. It (Saddam's) was a public assassination and an insult to all Arabs,'' Thuraya, a daughter of Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti, said through Al Arabiya television.

''Please, please let them have mercy over my father, my uncles who are left. No one deserves this punishment over a matter that is not worthy,'' she said by telephone from Yemen yesterday.

Saddam, former intelligence chief Barzan and former judge Awad al-Bander were found guilty of crimes against humanity and sentenced to death. Saddam was executed on Dec. 30.

Saddam's other half-brothers, Watban and Sabawi, are held at the US army's Camp Cropper near Baghdad airport.

Thuraya said Saddam and Barzan ''had not tortured or punished anyone unjustly. All those who say that my brother was executed or this or that was tortured (should know) there was a reason ... a big reason''.

Saddam had a duty as president to defend the country, she said. He tolerated opposition but not those who ''harmed the country''.

Asked if she had a message for the victims of Saddam's regime, Thuraya said: ''I have nothing to say.'' The Iraqi government has said it is determined to execute Barzan and Bander.

The United Nations has urged Iraq not to carry out the two remaining executions but Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has already signed the death warrants and the government has said the executions have been held up only by technical issues.

''There was no annihilation, this is what US media propagates,'' Thuraya said.

''If so, where are the mass graves? There are mass graves now. Hundreds of Iraqis die daily but the government was installed by the Americans and the Americans are not on trial.'' 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 being taunted by Shi'ite officials on the gallows, have inflamed sectarian tensions.

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