New Delhi, Nov 7: NDA Convenor and former Defence Minister George Fernandes today said India, which enjoyed Iraq's friendship for many decades, should stand up and prevent the efforts to hang deposed Iraq president Saddam Hussain.

In a statement, Mr Fernandes said India has been a close friend of Iraq for many years and the ruling Congress had especially been a ''gainer'' of this friendship.

''If going by the logic that some people killed in Iraq was a good reason for hanging Saddam, than US President George Bush too must be sent to the gallows for the same crime,'' he added.

President Bush, Mr Fernandes said, had invaded Iraq with a lie that the country was producing Weapons of Mass Destruction even after every designated agency failed to find any traces of WMDs.

Rejecting the UN advice, the US President launched war against Iraq to lay claims on Iraq oil and was responsible for the death of thousands of Iraqi children, innocent people and destruction of the whole nation, he said.

''If there is one war criminal who can be identified in this war, it is George Bush,'' Mr Fernandes charged.

He alleged the death sentence awarded to Saddam had more to do with US President's fear of his party losing the next presidential elections than dispensing justice. ''The arguments advanced by the prosecution was a mockery of jurisprudence,'' he charged.

UNI

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