Reply #13: VATICAN: SADDAM'S DEATH SENTENCE A CRIME SAYS CARDINAL

[ckramer]

Sentencing ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein to death is a crime for the Catholic Church says Cardinal Renato Martino, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, which has always condemned the death penalty. In an interview to Rome daily La Repubblica published on Thursday Martino said: "I hope a crime will not be compensated with another crime. The Church says that human life must be protected from conception until a natural death. The death penalty isn't a natural death. Nobody can give death, not even the state."

"There's still a period of 30 days (before the death sentence must be carried out), the president's signature is required, things can happen," the cardinal also told the paper.

Italian premier Romano Prodi has also condemned the decision to impose the death penalty.

In the interview to Repubblica, Martino criticised the US for showing pictures of soldiers checking Saddam's teeth "like a cow" immediately after he was captured in December 2003.

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