20 June 2005 :

Iraq's new president, Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani, hinted in an interview that he opposed the idea of ousted dictator Saddam Hussein being sentenced to death.
"I am among the lawyers who signed an international petition against the death penalty in the world and it would be problem for me if Iraqi courts issued death sentences," he told the pan-Arab Asharq al-Awsat newspaper.
Talabani, who was sworn in as president on April 7, was answering a question about the fate of Saddam, who was in US custody in Iraq awaiting trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity and could face the death penalty.
The new head of state, who spent much of his life fighting Saddam's regime, stressed however that he could not decide on a pardon individually if the deposed president was sentenced to death.
"The issue of a possible pardon is the responsibility of the presidential council and I cannot make an individual decision," he told the London-based newspaper. Kurds were among the communities who suffered the most under the rule of Saddam. Among the main charges facing him and his henchmen was the brutal Anfal campaign against the Kurds carried out in the 1980s.