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Saddam's execution decried by WCC, Rome. Punishing "a crime with another crime"

The general secretary of the World Council of Churches, a body that opposes the death penalty, asked God to grant Iraq “the mercy, justice and compassion that it has long been denied” and “an end to the fear and death that marked Saddam Hussein’s rule.”

After the execution December 30 of the former Iraqi dictator, WCC leader Samuel Kobia said from Geneva that while leaders must be held accountable for crimes they commit, “each taking of a person’s life is a part of a larger tragedy, and nowhere is this more apparent than in a land of daily killings.”