Vatican official speaks of last-minute clemency for Saddam

(29 Dec. 2006) : Speaking to Italy’s Repubblica newspaper on Thursday, Cardinal Renato Martino, the head of the Vatican's Justice and Peace department said that there was a chance for last-minute clemency for Saddam after an appeals court upheld his death sentence. "There's still a period of 30 days, before the death sentence must be carried out, the president's signature is required, things can happen," Cardinal Martino was reported as saying.

The former Iraqi President, Saddam Hussein was sentenced in November for crimes against humanity and the death penalty was upheld on Tuesday. Cardinal Martino, the former papal envoy to the United Nations, said: “the Church is opposed to capital punishment. You can’t think of compensating for one crime with another one,” he said. Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi has also condemned the decision to impose the death penalty. Cardinal Martino said he backed the idea of holding a peace conference aimed at solving all the major conflicts in the Middle East and reiterated the Vatican's position that invasion of Iraq by U.S.-led coalition was wrong.