KOLKATA, India, Nov 16 (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of communists marched in the Indian city of Kolkata on Thursday demanding that Saddam Hussein's death sentence be lifted. India's left parties, which won a record number of parliamentary seats in the 2004 elections, have a long history of opposing American foreign policy and have held huge protests in recent years against U.S. military action in Afghanistan and Iraq. Protesters shouted "Hang Bush and Blair, release Saddam" as they marched in the heart of Kolkata, capital of the communist-ruled state of West Bengal. Activists also burnt an effigy of U.S. President George W. Bush. "They changed the judge and rigged the trial completely," Biman Bose, a communist leader said. Saddam was sentenced on Nov. 5 by a U.S.-backed Iraqi court to hang for the killing and torture of hundreds of Shi'ite Muslims. His fate could change if an Iraqi appeals court, where the sentence needs to be confirmed, overturns the verdict or changes the sentence, such as commuting it to life imprisonment.
