A sombre Saddam Hussein called on Iraqis to forgive each other yesterday, when he returned to court two days after another panel of judges had condemned him to death for crimes against humanity.

Saddam, speaking to the court in the afternoon session, cited references to the Prophet Mohammad and Jesus who had asked for forgiveness for those who had opposed them.

"I call on all Iraqis, Arabs and Kurds, to forgive, reconcile and shake hands," Saddam said after respectfully challenging one witness' testimony.

The ex-president, who appeared in a black suit with white shirt, appeared both sombre and subdued during the proceeding, where he and other six defendants are on trial for the Operation Anfal crackdown against Iraqi Kurds in the late 1980s.

Saddam showed none of the bravado of two days ago, when he shouted "Long live the people and death to their enemies!" as another court sentenced him to the gallows.

Instead, he sat in stony silence yesterday as Kurdish survivors told of being duped by promises of amnesty, only to watch their friends and family being shot by Iraqi government soldiers.

On Sunday, another five-judge panel convicted Saddam in the deaths of nearly 150 Shi'ite Muslims following a 1982 assassination attempt against him in the town of Dujail.

He and two others were sentenced to death by hanging. Four co-defendants received lesser sentences and one was acquitted.

The Anfal trial will continue while an appeal in the Dujail case is under way. The prosecution says about 180,000 Kurds, most of them civilians, were killed in the crackdown in 1987-88.

Yesterday, the court called three witnesses who survived the August 28, 1988 slaying of more than 30 Kurdish men who had surrendered after hearing of an amnesty offer.

On Monday, the chief prosecutor in the Dujail case said a nine-judge appeals panel was expected to rule on Saddam's guilty verdict and death sentence by the middle of January. That could set in motion a possible execution by mid-February.

If the appeals court upholds the sentences, all three members of the Presidential Council President Jalal Talabani and Vice-presidents Tariq al-Hashimi and Adil Abdul-Mahdi must sign death warrants before executions can be carried out.

Talabani said on Monday that although he opposes capital punishment, his signature is not needed to carry out Saddam's death sentence. Talabani, a Kurd, has permanently authorized Abdul-Mahdi, a Shi'ite, to sign on his behalf. Abdul-Mahdi has said he would sign Saddam's death warrant, meaning two of three signatures were assured.

Source: China Daily