Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi today condemned the capital punishment awarded to former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and said death sentences were akin to "tearing some pages from human lives."

"Death sentences tear some pages from human life. It prevents replacement of the erroneous pages of the book. This is applicable not only to the common man, but also to dictators like Saddam Hussain," he said.

AIADMK supremo Jayalalithaa also condemned the sentence. In a statement, she said the sentence was a gross travesty of justice.

"This is a rigged verdict delivered by a puppet court after a farcial trial, which has made a mockery of the judicial process. No other outcome could be expected from a court set up by the United States in an occupied country. The democratic world has noted with dismay that several defence lawyers were mysteriously murdered and the Chief Judge was changed twice during the course of the trial," she said.

The Centre should strongly condemn the "sordid miscarriage of justice in unequivocal terms. The judgment cannot be acceptable to anyone who believes in freedom and justice," she said.

Comments (4)

Subscribe to this comment's feed