An appeal to a double prayer “for the victims of this conflict, on both sides, and for a quick, satisfactory conclusion of armed hostilities in the region” is launched by the Irish Bishops Conference, following Saddam Hussein’s sentence to be hanged. Bishop Raymond Field, president of the Commission for Justice and Social Affairs (Icjsa), expresses in a release “disagreement with the verdict of the High Criminal Court of Baghdad”, as being “against the common good”. “I fully share the words of card. Martino – goes on bishop Field – that a crime cannot be punished with another crime”. According to Field, “public response to the sentence clearly shows that this decision has further aggravated the opposition between Shiites and Sunnis in the country, while the Iraqi population has never worked so badly, and those who suffer most in such circumstances are the ordinary people”.
