[JURIST] Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] urged the Iraqi government [statement] on Monday not to carry out the anticipated executions [JURIST report] of two of Saddam Hussein's co-defendants, saying that if the executions are carried out, they will further demonstrate Iraq's disregard for human rights and the rule of law in the wake of the December 30 hanging [JURIST report] of ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein [JURIST news archive]. Former chief judge of Iraq's Hussein-era Revolutionary Court Awad Hamed al-Bandar [Wikipedia profile] and former Iraqi intelligence chief Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti [GlobalSecurity profile; BBC profile] are scheduled to be hanged later this week, after being postponed [JURIST] last Thursday as a result of "international pressure."

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki [BBC profile] has defended the conduct of Saddam's hanging and plans for his co-defendants' execution, even in the face of a last appeal Saturday by new UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who released a statement [text] "strongly [urging] the Government of Iraq to grant a stay of execution to those whose death sentences may be carried out in the near future." AP has more.