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Saddam Hussein has been handed over by US authorities to the Iraqi administration, CNN reported Friday, quoting a defence lawyer of the former dictator. The lawyer was quoted as saying he had been informed of the handover in an email from US military authorities. The handover would mean a final step towards Saddam's impending execution. Earlier Friday, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said the execution would be carried out "without delay", and there was "no going back" with regard to the death sentence. "Nobody can abrogate the verdict and whoever refuses Saddam's execution underestimates the Iraqi martyrs," al-Maliki told state television. "There will be no review or delay in carrying out the sentence," he said. The head of Saddam Hussein's defence team said he could not rule out the possibility that the ousted Iraqi leader could be executed within days. "Anything is possible, given our experience with the Americans and their growing lack of credibility across the world," Khalil Duleimi told DPA. Legal sources in Baghdad said the verdict originally handed down Nov 5 and upheld by an appeals court on Tuesday was decisive, and the Iraqi ministry of justice was waiting for a presidential decree for the execution to go ahead. The lawyer's comments follow reports the previous day by three US television networks which speculated that the execution could be carried out before Sunday, the last day of 2006 and the start of an Islamic festival to mark the end of the Haj. NBC, CBS and Fox News Channel cited unnamed US military officials speaking on condition of anonymity, as their sources for the reports. NBC said that the US military, which has held custody of Saddam during his trials for a 1982 massacre in the Shia town of Dujail and a second case of alleged genocide against Iraqi Kurds, had received a formal request from the Iraqi government to transfer him to Iraqi authorities, although this was contradicted by other news reports. Duleimi meanwhile confirmed to DPA that the US military had requested that Saddam's defence team collect his personal effects. "The American side contacted me ... and said they wanted any person from our side to go to them and retrieve the personal belongings of the president and those of Barzan Tikriti (Saddam's half-brother and former intelligence chief)," Duleimi said. In Geneva, the UN Human Rights Commissioner Louise Arbour warned against a quick execution of Saddam and also questioned the integrity of the former dictator's trial. "There were a number of concerns as to the fairness of the original trial, and there needs to be assurance that these issues have been comprehensively addressed," she said in a statement released Thursday evening. "I call therefore on the Iraqi authorities not to act precipitately in seeking to execute the sentence in these cases," she added. Saddam and six of his former top government aides were found guilty on Nov 5 of ordering the killing of 148 Shias in Dujail in 1982 in retaliation for an attempt on Saddam's life.
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