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BAGHDAD — Associated Press Published on Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2007 10:06PM EST Last updated on Tuesday, Mar. 31, 2009 9:49PM EDT
Another deputy of the late Iraqi president Saddam Hussein faces execution after an appeals court ruled his previous sentence of life in prison was too lenient, a court spokesman said Tuesday.
Raid Juhi, a spokesman for the Iraqi High Tribunal, said a session will be held Jan. 25 in which a judge will read a new sentence against former vice-president Taha Yassin Ramadan.
Ramadan was convicted of premeditated murder Nov. 5 and sentenced to life in prison. A month later, the appeals court said the sentence was too lenient and returned his case to the High Tribunal, demanding he be sentenced to death. The court agreed to turn it into a death sentence.
The same day Ramadan was convicted, the court sentenced Saddam, his half brother and former intelligence chief Barzan Ibrahim, and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, former head of Iraq's Revolutionary Court, to death. Three other defendants were sentenced to 15 years in jail, while one was acquitted.
Saddam was hanged Dec. 30, while Ibrahim and al-Bandar were executed Monday, provoking anger among their fellow Sunni Muslims after the former leader's half brother was decapitated on the gallows.
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