BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) — Saddam Hussein will be hanged before dawn on Saturday in Iraq, before 6 a.m. (10 p.m. Friday ET), according to Appeals Judge Munir Haddad.

The paperwork is in order for Hussein’s execution, and the judge echoed a widespread belief that the hanging could be imminent.

Haddad, a judge on the appeals court that upheld the former dictator’s death sentence, and an adviser to Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki each confirmed the paperwork preparation late Friday.

“All the procedures have been completed,” Haddad said.

“We got him”

Dark horse candidate Stéphane Dion surged from fourth to first to claim the federal Liberal leadership, defeating Michael Ignatieff on Saturday in the final ballot.

Dion garnered 2,521 votes in the fourth-round tally, or about 54 per cent of the delegates, ahead of Ignatieff, who lead the campaign until the third ballot.

“The most exciting race in the history of our party is over,” Dion told a jubilant crowd of some 5,000 delegates Saturday evening at the party’s convention in Montreal. “Let’s get ready for the election!”

The new leader, who initially was given little chance to win, hailed his fellow candidates surrounding him on stage as a “Liberal Dream Team” that would defeat Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Tory government.

Political observers said the Bloc Québécois and Harper Conservatives welcomed running against a Liberal party led by Dion, seeing him as the weaker choice, and a particularly hard-sell in his home province, Quebec.