Is Saddam Hussein legally able to run for office?

In the United States a criminal looses certain rights only after he has been sentenced. Does this apply in Iraq since we had such a strong hand in shaping their new constitution?

But, it's hard to run for office from prison.

Zaman Online (Turkey)
September 21, 2004

http://www.zaman.org/?bl=international&alt=&trh=20040921&hn=12424

Overthrown Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, who was arrested by US forces last December, reportedly plans to run as a candidate in the Iraqi elections scheduled for January 2005.

Saddam's lawyer Giovanni di Stefano told Denmark's B.T. newspaper that Saddam decided during one of their discussions that he would declare his candidacy for the elections.

Stefano said that there was no law that prevented Saddam from appearing on the ballot. He added that Saddam hopes to regain his presidency and palaces via the democratic process.

Contrary to the statements of Iraqi Interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, Stefano claims, "Saddam has no chance to be tried before the elections. Moreover, no international law prevents him from coming forward."

Saddam's lawyer defends that the ambiguity in Iraq will favor Saddam at the polls. Stefano remarked that a recent Gallup poll indicates that 42 percent of the Iraqi people want their former leader back.

it will be more likely to happen

By turning Saddam over to Iraqi authorities, the U.S. has instituted a legally contradictory area, wherein Saddam will be tried for offenses against laws not in effect at the time he was ruling Iraq.

Of course, if the administration had turned him over to an international tribunal for war crimes or crimes against humanity, they'd run the risk that all sorts of inconvenient facts might come to light about just how Saddam came into power in Iraq, what exactly was the nature of his relationship with the U.S. during the 1980s, Saddam's business connections with subsidiaries of Halliburton when Cheney was running the show there, etc.