08 November 2006 :
Hands Off Cain President Marco Pannella reaffirmed his availability to be appointed to Iraq in order to save Saddam Hussein from the death penalty, underlining that he would have to be given the task by the Italian government.The Transnational Radical Party leader said the move would be facilitated by the fact that the TRP has for years had contacts with both Shiites and Kurds in Iraq.
Pannella made his comments during a Hands Off Cain press conference re-launching the appeal against the death sentence for Saddam.
The appeal, entitled “Hands Off Saddam”, calls on the Italian government and the European Commission to express to the Iraqi Government their dissent concerning the use of the death penalty also against the former dictator, and their support for a moratorium of capital executions in view of the total abolition of the death penalty.
57 Italian MPs have so far given adhered to the appeal.
According to Communist Refoundation MP Ramon Mantovano, “The court which tried Saddam violates the most basic international rights concerning trials: it is an ad hoc tribunal where judges shown to be too neutral towards the accused were regularly substituted during proceedings.”
(Sources: HOC, 07/11/2006)