EUROPEAN RIGHTS PANEL URGES END TO ALL EXECUTIONS IN IRAQ

the Council of Europe appealed to Iraq to immediately stop all executions, describing the death penalty as a human rights violation. The call came ahead of the postponed hanging of two Saddam aides sentenced with him for the murder of 147 Shiite villagers. "We express our solidarity with the Iraqi people and reiterate our unequivocal condemnation of the crimes committed by the regime of Saddam Hussein," said a statement by the 46-member Strasbourg-based forum linking nations in east and west Europe.
"But we also call for an immediate end of executions and the abolition of the death penalty in Iraq," it urged.
"The message to our friends in Iraq is based on our own experience in Europe; namely that the death penalty violates human rights, and that without human rights there can be no justice, peace and reconciliation."