In response to the death sentence passed on Saddam Hussein on Sunday morning, Sweden's Foreign Minister Carl Bildt has said it is extremely satisfying that the former dictator has been made to answer for his crimes and that the first verdict has now been handed down.

"It is of the utmost importance that those who bear the highest responsibility for the serious and massive abuses of human rights of the previous regime now answer for their actions," he said in a press statement.

But at the same time, Bildt expressed regret that Iraq has not chosen to abolish the death penalty.

"Sweden and the European Union's position on the matter is well- known and our rejection of the death penalty is without exception," he said.

Carl Bildt added that the judicial process and the verdict against Saddam would not solve Iraq's political problems.

Nevertheless, many Iraqis in Sweden were said to be jubilant over the verdict.

"It's very positive. It shows that dictators cannot escape justice," said Hikmet Hussein, secretary general of the National Iraqi Association, to Expressen, a center-right tabloid newspaper.

He told the paper that there were no qualms over the death sentence.

Source: Xinhua