Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said in remarks aired on Sunday that he would not sign a death sentence against ousted leader Saddam Hussein even if it costs him his job. "Once his (Saddam's) interrogation is over, he will go before a tribunal," Talabani told Dubai-based Al-Arabiya news channel in an interview.
Should a death sentence be issued against the former dictator, "I will not sign it," he said.
"I am a man of principles. I cannot forego my principles for the sake of my post. If there is a clash between the post and the principles, I will give up the post and keep the principles," Talabani said in a snippet aired in advance of the full broadcast of the interview.
Talabani said in May that he would not sign a death sentence against Saddam, whose trial on charges of crimes against humanity during his iron-fisted rule over Iraq is expected to come up within the next two months.
The Iraqi president, a vocal opponent of capital punishment, refused earlier this month to sign the first death sentences passed in Iraq since Saddam's ouster in April 2003.