Sentence delayed on Saddam deputy

Judge postpones decision on death penalty for Dujail-case defendant.

Taha Yassin Ramadan, Iraq vice president
In November Ramadan was convicted of murder, forced deportation and torture [EPA]

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Ali al-Kahishi, an aide to Raouf Abdul-Rahman, the chief judge, said the session will be adjourned until February 12 “because the plaintiff’s lawyers are not present in the court because they were not notified”.

Ramadan was initially convicted on the same day that Saddam, Barzan Ibrahim, Saddam’s half-brother and former intelligence chief, and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, former head of Iraq’s revolutionary court, were sentenced to death.

Three other defendants were sentenced to 15 years in jail while one was acquitted.

Saddam was hanged on December 30, and Ibrahim and al-Bandar were executed on January 15.

Baghdad bomb

In a separate development, at least four people were killed and 20 wounded when a motorcycle blew up in a busy market in central Baghdad.

The police said the motorcycle was parked at the side of the street at the entrance of Shurja market.

On Monday, a double car bombing near Baghdad’s Bab al-Sharji market killed 88 people.

Source: News Agencies