Sentencing for Saddam Deputy Postponed

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- An Iraqi judge postponed sentencing for Saddam Hussein's vice president because lawyers for relatives and victims of the crimes failed to show up on Thursday.

Taha Yassin Ramadan is expected to hang just like his boss. The court had been expected to raise the sentence after an appeals court ruled that Ramadan's previous sentence of life in prison was too lenient.

Judge Ali al-Kahishi said the session will be adjourned until Feb. 12, "because the plaintiff lawyers are not present in the court because they were not notified."

Ramadan was convicted along with Saddam and five others for ordering the killing of Shiites in the town of Dujail, north of Baghdad, following an assassination attempt there against Saddam 25 years ago. Prosecutors said 148 were killed in retribution.

On Nov. 5, Ramadan was convicted of murder, forced deportation and torture and sentenced to life in prison sentenced to life in prison. A month later, the appeals court said the sentence was too lenient, and returned his case to the High Tribunal, demanding he be sentenced to death. The court agreed to turn it to a death sentence.

The same day Ramadan was convicted, the court sentenced Saddam, his half brother and former intelligence chief Barzan Ibrahim, and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, former head of Iraq's Revolutionary Court, to death. Three other defendants were sentenced to 15 years in jail while one was acquitted.

Saddam was hanged on Dec. 30, while Ibrahim and al-Bandar were executed Jan. 15, provoking anger among their fellow Sunnis after the former leader's half brother was decapitated on the gallows.