30 November 2007 :

the United States will refuse to hand over to Iraqi authorities for execution three former top officials from the Saddam Hussein regime as long as the "legal controversy" over their sentencing remains, reports said. "There is a legal conflict concerning the execution, and the US embassy pledged not to hand over the officials unless they receive a presidential decree," a senior Iraqi government official was quoted as saying by pan-Arab al-Sharq al-Awsat newspaper. Saddam's last defence minister Sultan Hashim along with his cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid and the former deputy commander of operations of the Iraqi army, Hussein Rashid, were sentenced to death on June 24, 2007 over the 1987 ethnic cleansing campaign against Kurds in Anfal. The sentences were upheld by an appeals court in early September. The three should have faced the gallows on October 4, 30 days after the sentences were upheld. However their hanging was delayed when US forces refused to transfer the prisoners to the Iraqis. The US embassy in Baghdad issued a statement saying that the US forces "are not refusing to relinquish custody" but are only "waiting for the government of Iraq to come to a consensus as to what their law requires before preparing a physical transfer."