Louise Arbour, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, has appealed the sentences of two top Iraqi officials who were given the death penalty for their roles under former president Saddam Hussein.
Saddam was hanged on Dec. 30 for his role in the deaths of 148 Shiites in the 1980s.
Arbour said her concerns over the way Saddam's trial was handled also apply to his co-defendants -- Saddam's half-brother Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti and former chief judge Awad al-Bandar. Both are expected to hang soon.
Iraqi national security adviser Mouwaffaq al-Rubaie said that Barzan and Bandar's executions had been delayed so that Saddam Hussein could be "executed on a special day," the British Broadcasting Corporation reports.
They have also been sentenced for their roles in the deaths of the 148 Shiites.
Arbour said she has filed an appeal -- backed by the new UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon -- directly to Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, asking him to hold off on the executions.
Arbour argues that the men should have the opportunity to seek a pardon for their crimes.
A spokesperson for Ban said he was "strongly behind" Arbour's position.
Arbour also appealed Saddam's execution in the days leading up to his death.
Controversy has arisen over the former dictator's execution -- particularly the final moments before he was hanged.
A grainy video shows the former dictator being heckled as he was led to the gallows.
Since the video was released, Iraqi authorities have arrested two security guards and an official who oversaw the execution.
It's believed that outsiders infiltrated the guard force before Saddam's execution.
Iraqi state television broadcast an official video of Saturday's hanging, which had no audio and never showed Saddam's actual death. But another leaked video, recorded on a cell phone camera and distributed across the Internet, showed the ousted leader exchanging taunts with witnesses in his final moments.
After Saddam recited prayers, some guards shouted praise for Muqtada al-Sadr, the radical Shiite cleric.
That sparked a battle of insults between Saddam and some of the guards, with Saddam questioning their bravery and a guard telling him to go "straight to hell."
There was worldwide outrage in response to the taunting, and Iraqi Sunnis protested the treatment.
Some analysts see the recent arrests as necessary action by the Iraqi government, which has a Shiite majority, to stem the unrest.
"And so they had to do something to show some contrition or some sort of role in saying that this was a mistake and that they had taken some action," Mark Plotkin, a political analyst, told 愛污传媒net.
There are conflicting reports on who may have smuggled a cell phone into the chamber where Saddam was hanged.
With files from The Associated Press
