11月5日，伊拉克高等法庭宣布，伊拉克前总统萨达姆因杜贾尔村案被判处绞刑。世界各国对此均做出了不同的反应。在巴格达街头，当人们看到电视上的宣判结果后，纷纷涌上了街头，互相欢呼拥抱；在萨达姆的家乡，大约2000多名伊拉克人走上街头，抗议伊政府。5日当天，伊朗各大媒体纷纷在头版头条刊发了萨达姆即将接受判决的消息，大多数伊朗民众都表示，萨达姆应该被处以死刑。对于萨达姆的绞刑判决，欧盟发表声明，虽谴责萨达姆政权过去的罪行，但反对对其执行死刑。国际特赦组织表示，他们对萨达姆的审判的公正性持怀疑态度。英国、澳大利亚对萨达姆的死刑判决表示支持。　
Taxi driver Khatab Ahmed rejoices as death penalty is told to former leader Saddam Hussein, in Kirkuk, 290 kilometers (180 miles) north of Baghdad, Nov. 5, 2006. Iraq's High Tribunal on Sunday found Saddam Hussein guilty of crimes against humanity and sentenced him to hang, as the visibly shaken former leader shouted 'God is great!' Ahmed's brother and uncle were arrested by Saddam's security forces in the 1980s and disappeared forever and his two cousins died in a 1991 Kurdish uprising. [AP]
 

Saddam Hussein's death sentence was celebrated by some on Sunday as justice deserved or even divine, but denounced by others as a political ploy two days  before critical US midterm congressional elections.

Worldwide, the range of reactions - including a European outcry over capital punishment and doubts about the fairness of the tribunal that ordered Saddam to hang - reflected new geopolitical fault lines drawn after America's decision to invade Iraq in 2003 and depose its dictator.

The European Union welcomed the verdict but said Saddam should not be put to death. At the Vatican, Cardinal Renato Martino, Pope Benedict XVI's top prelate for justice issues, called the sentence a throwback to "eye for an eye" vengeance.

"This is not the way to present the new Iraq to the world, which is different from Saddam, who was behind hundreds of thousands of deaths as well as death penalty sentences," said Hands Off Cain, an Italian organization working to rid the world of capital punishment.

Islamic leaders warned that executing Saddam could inflame those who revile the US, undermining President Bush's policy in the Middle East and inspiring terrorists.

"The hanging of Saddam Hussein will turn to hell for the Americans," said Vitaya Wisethrat, a respected Muslim cleric in Thailand, which has its own Islamic insurgency in the country's south.

"The Saddam case is not a Muslim problem but the problem of America and its domestic politics," he said. "Maybe Bush will use this case to tell the voters that Saddam is dead and that the Americans are safe. But actually the American people will be in more danger with the death of Saddam."

Praising the Iraqi judiciary for its independence, the White House denied arranging for the verdict to be announced just two days before pivotal elections in which Democrats are fighting for control of Congress.

"The idea is preposterous," said Tony Snow, Bush's spokesman.

Although some voiced doubts that Saddam would actually be hanged, the International Federation for Human Rights denounced the death sentence, warning that it "will generate more violence and deepen the cycle of killing for revenge in Iraq." The Council of Europe called it "futile and wrong" to execute Saddam.

In Pakistan, an opposition religious coalition claimed American forces have caused more deaths in Iraq in the past 3 1/2 years than Saddam did during his 23-year rule, and insisted Bush should stand trial for war crimes.

In the Arab world, some Muslims saw the sentence as divine retribution, but others decried it as a farce.

"Saddam is being judged by traitors, Americans and Iranians, and those who came on the backs of American tanks," said Mahmoud al-Saifi of the Arab Liberation Front.

Iran, which fought an eight-year war against Saddam's Iraq and is a bitter opponent of the United States, praised the death sentence and said it hoped that Saddam - denounced by one lawmaker as "a vampire" - still would be tried for other crimes.

Key US allies - including Britain and Australia - welcomed Sunday's verdict, which had been widely expected.

(Agencies)
 

Vocabulary: 
 
political ploy: 政治手段

midterm congressional elections: 议会中期选举

capital punishment: 死刑

prelate: 高级教士

preposterous: 荒谬的

（英语点津陈蓓编辑）