U.K.’s Blair opposes death penalty for Saddam

Trial shows ‘the brutality, the tyranny’ of Iraqi ex-leader, British PM says

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updated 12:56 p.m. ET Nov. 6, 2006

LONDON - Prime Minister Tony Blair said Monday he opposed the death penalty for former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein but that his trial had reminded the world of the deposed leader’s brutality.

Asked about Saddam’s sentence at his monthly press conference, Blair noted that Britain opposed the death penalty, “whether it’s Saddam or anyone else.”

But he said the trial “gives us a chance to see again what the past in Iraq was, the brutality, the tyranny, the hundreds of thousands of people he killed, the wars.”

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