The Iraqi High Court ruled today that Saddam Hussein's former vice president should follow him to the gallows despite appeals from UN officials for his life to be spared.
"God knows I didn't do anything wrong," Taha Yassin Ramadan said shortly before the judge sentenced him to death by hanging for his role in the killing of 148 Shia men from the town of Dujail in the 1980s.
Taha Yassin Ramadan
Ramadan was sentenced in November to life in jail for the killings, for which Saddam and two other men have already been hanged.
An appeals court recommended that Ramadan receive the death penalty and had referred the case back to the trial court for a final decision.
New York-based Human Rights Watch had urged the court yesterday not to impose the death penalty, saying there had been a lack of evidence tying Ramadan to the Dujail killings.
"I was not assigned any mission in Dujail. All the witnesses confirmed they did not see me in Dujail," Ramadan told the court when asked if he had any final remarks before the ruling was delivered.
United Nations human rights chief Louise Arbour last week also urged the court to spare Ramadan's life, saying a death sentence would break international law.