EU, UN restate opposition to Saddam execution

"The EU opposes the death penalty and it should not be applied in this case either," Finnish Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja said at an informal press conference in Helsinki.

Earlier on Friday the US military in Iraq had asked lawyers for Saddam to collect the former Iraqi dictator's personal effects in advance of his execution.

Saddam, his half brother Barzan al-Tikriti and Awad Ahmed al-Bandar al-Sadun, a former chief judge of the revolutionary court, were sentenced to death by hanging by the Iraqi High Tribunal for the massacre of 148 Shia villagers from Dujail north of Baghdad after an assassination attempt there against the Iraqi leader in 1982.

The court on December 26 rejected their appeals against their convictions and ordered the executions be carried out. Under Iraqi law, this must occur within 30 days of the order.

Finland currently holds the six-month rotating presidency of the EU and is due to hand over the role to Germany on January 1.

In Geneva, the UN Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers Thursday added his voice to those opposing the execution of former dictator Saddam Hussein, due to take place within the next month.

"The decision of the Iraqi high court does not seem to be preoccupied with the serious breaches of the trial," Special Rapporteur Leandro Despouy said.

Saddam was denied the right to be tried in an independent and neutral court and to a fair defence, Despouy said.

An Iraqi panel of appeals court judges on Tuesday confirmed Saddam's conviction for crimes against humanity and ordered he face the noose within 30 days.

As ousted dictator Saddam Hussein prepared for his execution yesterday his imminent fate continued to divide the people of the war-torn country he ruled for 24 turbulent years.

While many rejoiced in what they regard as just punishment for a despot with the blood of tens of thousands of his countrymen on his hands, many members of Iraq's embattled Sunni minority expressed anger at the verdict.

Meanwhile, Iraqis across the country lamented that his death would do nothing to bring to an end the bitter sectarian war that erupted after Saddam's downfall, plunging the country into a crisis bordering on civil war.

"Whether we execute him or not is not important," sighed Mukhalled Jaralla, a 42-year-old teacher in the northern city of Mosul, speaking for many among Iraq's long-suffering 26-million-strong population.