The Arab Center for the Independence of the Judiciary and the Legal Profession (ACIJLP) urges the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions to take urgent action and present a petition to the Iraqi authorities concerned demanding that the death sentence handed down to Taha Yassin Ramadan, the former deputy president of Iraq, not be implemented.
ACIJLP believes that Ramadan’s trial lacked the basic guarantees of a fair and unbiased trial, particularly the standards laid down in article 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). ACIJLP also believes that the sentence issued against Ramadan may be motivated by unsound reasons, or for reasons of revenge, rather than seeking justice. This is particularly the case given that it contravenes the principles and rules of criminal justice according to which the plaintiff should not be harmed by an appeal, and the second instance (appeal) court must not issue a sentence harsher than that of the first instance court, especially since that it is charged with examining the application of the law rather than the facts.
ACIJLP therefore directs appeals to the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions to make every effort to persuade the Iraqi government to stop the implementation of this verdict. It calls on the Iraqi president to make effective article 6(4) of the ICCPR which states that “anyone sentenced to death shall have the right to seek pardon or commutation of the sentence. Amnesty, pardon or commutation of the sentence of death may be granted in all cases.”
Taha Hussein Ramadan was arrested on 19th August 2003 and stood trial with others in the Dujail trial. He was given a life sentence on the 5th November 2006 (his lawyer was assassinated on 8th November 2005) but the appeals court rejected this sentence as being too lenient, and demanded that he be executed. A death sentence was issued on the 12th February 2007.
