Iraqi President Jalal Talabani has called for a delay in the executions of Saddam’s two co-defendents.
The BBC is reporting that “as president, Mr Talabani has no power to annul or delay the executions.”
That’s not my understanding, though.
In the lead up to Saddam’s execution, Maliki had to come up with a workaround because Talabani, an opponent of capital punishment in general, wouldn’t authorize it. The two eventually compromised. And Talabani wrote Maliki a letter — of questionable constitutional significance — saying he had no objection to the execution proceeding, which of course it did.
