IRAQ. TALABANI MIGHT NOT 'PROHIBIT' HUSSEIN DEATH PENALTY

in an exclusive interview with Radio Free Iraq (RFI), Iraqi President Jalal Talabani spoke about the trial of Saddam Hussein.
RFI: Will you sign a death sentence if it is issued over Saddam Hussein?
Talabani: No. I am a man who feels obliged by his signature and his morals. I am one of the lawyers who has signed an international document against the death penalty throughout the world. I also have an agreement with the International [Committee of the] Red Cross on not applying the death penalty. That is why I cannot break my moral obligations after I became the president of the Republic of Iraq. This does not mean, however, that I will prohibit the death sentence from being carried out. It is possible that I will be absent [from the office] on a particular day and the remaining colleagues in the Presidency Council [referring to Vice Presidents Ghazi Ajil al-Yawar and Adil Abd al-Mahdi] will be able to decide. The decision [on the death penalty] is not in the hands of the president of the republic. It is in the hands of the Presidency Council, of its three members. But it happens sometimes that one of them is absent.