Iraq's parliament speaker says he opposes hanging of Saddam-era minister

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
The parliament speaker joined Iraq's president Thursday to oppose the execution of a Saddam Hussein-era defense minister convicted of genocide against Kurds, arguing that sending him to the gallows would set a dangerous precedent for the armed forces. "I am entirely against it," he said on Iraq's Al-Sharqiya television, which interviewed him in Damascus, Syria. "I am even against him being held to account," he said. Mahmoud al-Mashhadani's opposition to the execution of Sultan Hashim Ahmed al-Tai likely will deepen the dispute over the former defense chief execution - st becoming a major political crisis.