Bringing back the death penalty after the handover...

Bringing back the death penalty after the handover of power by the Coalition Provisional Authority to a new Iraqi government on June 30 "is not the best way to present the new Iraq to the world," HOC General Secretary Sergio D'Elia said.
D'Elia was reacting to a statement to that effect by the newly-appointed justice minister Malik Dohan al-Hassan.
"The abolition of the death penalty, and in the meanwhile a moratorium on executions, would be the most clearcut break from Saddam's regime," D'Elia said in a statement. Iraq, when dominated by Saddam Hussein's regime, along with China and Iran, "in recent years has always had the terrible record of featuring among the top three nations in terms of executions."
With regard to the deposed dictator, D'Elia said "our call to keep Hands Off Cain goes for Saddam too. By this we mean the inviolability of his person and certainly not his impunity."