It was reported that the British Foreign Office slipped...

It was reported that the British Foreign Office slipped out a warning that the UK would boycott the upcoming trial of Saddam Hussein if there was any risk of the former dictator being put to death.
The Government's legal advisers were also grappling with the intractable legal dilemma of what to do with former high-ranking officials held in British-run jails. Sir Malcolm Rifkind, a former foreign secretary, echoed diplomats' frustration in an article in the Independent on Sunday in which he called for responsibility for Iraq to be taken away from Donald Rumsfeld, US Defence Secretary, and the Pentagon and handed to the State Department, headed by Colin Powell. Government policy and the European Convention on Human Rights lay down that the British cannot hand the prisoners over if there is any risk of them being executed.
The death penalty had been suspended in Iraq, on British insistence, but was expected to be re-introduced. A Foreign Office official said: "The imposition of the death penalty is a matter for sovereign states, and the UK has to maintain relations with `retentionist' states, including for example the United States and China. We cannot treat Iraq any differently.
"It would be prejudicial to specify who may face prosecution before the tribunal, but as in all other circumstance, we would seek assurances that anyone passed to another jurisdiction would not face the death penalty. We're not in that position yet."
Kate Allen, UK director of Amnesty International, said: "The death penalty is arbitrary, cruel and wrong... The UK authorities must obtain assurances that prisoners will not face the death penalty before handing them over to another authority."
The Iraqi Governing Council had already passed a decree which meant that officials of the old regime would face trial by a special tribunal.