Saddam Hussein's defence team said on Wednesday it hoped Europe's opposition to the death penalty would help save the convicted former Iraqi president from the gallows who's genocide trial was adjourned to November 27.
The adjournment purpose was to give the defence team time to present its witnesses, marking the end of a key phase in the trial.
Four Kurdish witnesses testified against the deposed president and six co-defendants in what appeared to be the final session for the prosecution's eye witnesses in the trial.
"I believe that the position of the European Union and those of several world leaders opposed to the death penalty will have an influence over its implementation," Saddam's lead Iraqi lawyer Khalil al-Dulaimi told AFP.
Asked if the Iraqi High Trubunal which has sentenced Saddam to death by hanging would hesitate before ordering the penalty to be carried out, Dulaimi said: "I think so."
British Prime Minister Tony Blair, a staunch US ally, was among several European leaders who criticised the verdict passed on Saddam, saying he was opposed to the death penalty for "Saddam or anybody else".
Portuguese President Anibal Cavaco Silva argued the death-by-hanging verdict should not be implemented.
That viewpoint was echoed by both the 46-member Council of Europe and Finland, which currently holds the European Union's rotating presidency.
Dulaimi was speaking on his return to Amman along with other Western and Arab members of the Jordan-based defence team who attended the verdict hearing in the Iraqi capital.
Saddam was sentenced to death by hanging for crimes against humanity along two co-defendants for ordering the execution of 148 Shias from the village of Dujail in the 1980s.
On Tuesday, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki told BBC television the former president's execution could come before the end of the year.
The defence team has charged that the verdict was a "political" decision to bolster the Republican Party of President George W. Bush in US elections.
"The whole case was political. They wanted it to be a card in the American ballot box," Dulaimi said about Tuesday's congressional elections.
"The trial was a farce produced in Washington with Iran's help and performed in Iraq," he charged.
Saddam's lawyers have said they will appeal the verdict. But "the appeals will also be a political decision and we do not rely on the trial or the appeals," Dulaimi said.
He slammed the court for failing to officially deliver the verdict in writing to the defence team. "They told us it would be sent to us within five days by email," Dulaimi said.
Dulaimi also reiterated the defence team will continue to boycott the Anfal trial underway in Baghdad in which Saddam and six other defendants are accused of killing tens of thousands of Iraqi Kurds in the 1980s.