Iraqi court sentences former Saddam VP to death

BAGHDAD, Feb 12 (Reuters) The Iraqi High Court today ruled that Saddam Hussein's former vice president should follow him to the gallows, despite appeals from UN officials and international human rights groups for his life to be spared.

''God knows I didn't do anything wrong,'' Taha Yassin Ramadan said shortly before judge Ali al-Kahachi sentenced him to death by hanging for his role in the killing of 148 Shi'ite men from the town of Dujail in the 1980s.

Ramadan was sentenced in November to life in jail for the killings, for which Saddam and two other men have already been hanged. An appeals court recommended that Ramadan receive the death penalty and had referred the case back to the trial court for a final decision.

''In the name of the people the court decided ... to sentence the convicted, Taha Yassin Ramadan, to death by hanging for committing the crime of willful killing as a crime against humanity,'' Kahachi said.

New York-based Human Rights Watch had urged the court today not to impose the death penalty, saying there had been a lack of evidence tying Ramadan to the Dujail killings.

''I was not assigned any mission in Dujail. All the witnesses confirmed they did not see me in Dujail,'' Ramadan told the court when asked if he had any final remarks before the ruling was delivered.

United Nations human rights chief Louise Arbour last week also urged the court to spare Ramadan's life, saying a death sentence would break international law.

Reuters MQA DB1854