AMMAN, Jordan, Nov. 6 (UPI) -- Arab press roundup for Nov. 6:
Arab newspapers reacted Monday to the death penalty handed Sunday to toppled Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein by an Iraqi court established by the U.S. authorities.
London-based al-Hayat said Saddam has finally received his punishment as the court refused to meet his demand to be sentenced to death by a shooting squad, but by hanging.
The Saudi-financed daily added that hanging is for common criminals convicted of armed robbery, saying that executing his opponents by the bullet had been Saddam's method of choice since he took power in the country.
"Yesterday was the day of judgment" in Baghdad and Washington, it said.
In Baghdad, the paper said, authorities were euphoric over the ruling against Saddam, hoping it would reduce the Baathist reaction in confronting security forces.
The U.S. administration's clear approval, it added, was aimed at "saving its deteriorating popularity on the eve of the midterm elections."
The paper insisted the Iraqi court, surrounded by doubts over its integrity of being independent from political influence, has given Saddam's defense a new pretext to suspect the timing of the verdict and its intention to remain in the Green Zone under U.S. occupation.
The daily noted the charges against Saddam included killing, torture and the forced exile of citizens and asked, "Isn't this Iraq's situation today?" It said if many see that Saddam deserved the death penalty, "then who will judge the gangs that are killing an entire people?"
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Another London-based daily, al-Quds al-Arabi, said in a front-page commentary the verdict against Saddam and his aides was expected from the first day of this "farce of a trial."
The independent Palestinian-owned daily insisted the verdict was not legal and the court was not just since it was a ruling made by the occupiers.
The paper said that while Saddam's regime had committed crimes against its critics, the new Iraqi government was not expected to "throw roses on its own critics and the American occupation forces will not forgive its opposers."
The paper said Saddam would have deserved to stand trial if those trying him had provided a better example of rule by imposing security, equality, justice, tolerance and improved living standards.
"But they and the occupiers did the opposite and committed massacres and violations of human rights a lot more than those committed by Saddam's regime," it insisted.
Saddam, the paper went on to say, never claimed to be a democratic leader, "but he was never a sectarian one," opining the man will continue to "terrify" the Iraqis in power today because of their "sectarianism and racism, and because they came on the back of the occupation tanks and lack the basic conditions of nationalism."
The paper predicted the day will come when the Americans and their allies will regret the ruling against Saddam, just as they now regret the decision to invade and occupy Iraq.
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Jordan's ad-Dustour said in a commentary that Saddam's trial was a farce from the beginning when the defense was banned from defending, judges were dismissed because they were neutral and the American presence was obvious in all its details.
It said the trial represents a mirror of the new Iraq, where the occupation effectively rules, the allies implement and the population is imprisoned, insisting the occupation authorities, not the Iraqi court, had passed judgment on Saddam.
The mass-circulation daily, which describes itself as independent but is partially owned by the government, said those who convicted the former leader of crimes against humanity are committing the same crimes today.
"If the regime had changed in a normal way and Saddam was tried by Iraqis, the conclusions would be different; but the judgment of the occupation cannot achieve justice," it stressed.
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Egypt's al-Gomhuriya commented on the mixed views on Saddam's trial and verdict, in which some thought he deserved the death penalty for crimes against the Iraqi people while others saw the trial as lacking basic justice.
The semi-official daily noted Saddam was the first Arab leader to be accused "under the flags of the occupation and guarded by its forces that invaded and occupied Iraq in violation of international legitimacy."
Either way, the mass-circulation paper argued, the Iraqi people are ultimately suffering from the repercussions of this occupation. It said the death or life of Saddam will not affect the strength of the anti-occupation resistance because it stems from the free Iraqi people and expresses their aspirations of liberty from the occupation.
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Algeria's al-Khabar said the death penalty against Saddam was issued the day neo-conservatives in Washington decided to launch a war on Iraq.
The paper, which describes itself as independent, said it is surprising when those who preach democracy would hold a "farce of a trial under occupation."
It argued that what started out wrong will end up wrong, insisting the entire world knows that Iraq is under a destructive occupation where killing, torture, rape and all "Saddam's sins and much more" are taking place today.
The paper said the trial was a political trial of Saddam's regime, and it could have revealed the truth if it was carried out in an Iraq that is not occupied by 150,000 American troops.
"This was a colonialist American trial programmed for the interest of the Bush administration that is drowned in the bloody Iraqi quagmire," it declared.
The paper added that Iraqis have the right to detest Saddam because he was not just with them, "but those who judged him have trampled on what is left of justice and sentenced it to death."
