Saddam chief justice hanged
Jan 15, 2007
BAGHDAD, Monday - Two of Saddam Hussein’s aides were hanged before dawn yesterday, the Iraqi government said. But despite its efforts to avoid the uproar that marred the execution of the former president two weeks ago, news that the noose ripped the head from Saddam’s cancer-stricken half-brothe
BAGHDAD, Monday - Two of Saddam Hussein’s aides were hanged before dawn yesterday, the Iraqi government said.
But despite its efforts to avoid the uproar that marred the execution of the former president two weeks ago, news that the noose ripped the head from Saddam’s cancer-stricken half-brother as he plunged from the gallows appalled international critics of the process and fuelled fury among Saddam’s fellow Sunni Arabs.
On the defensive after Shi’ite sectarian taunts were heard in illicit film of Saddam’s execution, a spokesman for the Shi’ite-led government insisted there was “no violation of procedure†during the executions of his half-brother Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti (right) and former judge Awad Hamed al-Bander.
But defence lawyers and politicians from the once dominant Sunni Arab minority expressed anger at the fate of Barzan, Saddam’s once feared intelligence chief, and there was also scepticism and condemnation of Iraq’s Shi’ite-dominated leadership across the mostly Sunni-ruled Arab world.
Government officials showed journalists film of the two men standing side by side in orange jumpsuits on the scaffold, looking fearful before they were hooded and the nooses placed around their necks. There was no disturbance in the execution chamber — apparently the same one where Saddam died on December 30. Bander muttered the prayer: “There is no god but God.â€
Barzan, 55, a vocal presence during the year-long trial for crimes against humanity, appeared to tremble quietly. As the bodies plunged through the traps, Barzan’s hooded head flew off and came to rest beside his body in a pool of blood below the empty noose. Bander swung dead on his rope. Officials said they would not release the film publicly.
Government adviser Bassam al-Husseini said the damage to the body was “an act of Godâ€. During his trial for crimes against humanity over the killings of 148 Shi’ites from Dujail, a witness said Barzan’s agents put people in a meat grinder.
Hangmen gauge the length of rope needed to snap the neck of the condemned but not to create enough force to sever the head.
Saleem al-Jibouri, a senior Sunni Arab lawmaker, said Barzan may have been weakened by the cancer he was suffering from.
Barzan’s son-in-law hurled a sectarian insult at the government on pan-Arab Al Jazeera television: “As for ripping off his head, this is the grudge of the Safavids,†he said — a historical term referring to Shi’ite ties to non-Arab Iran.
“They have only came to Iraq for revenge,†Azzam Salih Abdullah said from Yemen. “May God curse this democracy.â€
The hangings took place at 3 a.m. (0000 GMT) at the same former secret police base where Saddam was hanged on Dec. 30, an adviser to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said. Officials tried to impose a media blackout for some hours but word leaked out.
The U.S. ambassador to Iraq said the executions were an entirely Iraqi affair with little U.S. involvement. Asked about the hangings, Zalmay Khalilzad told reporters: “It was an Iraqi process. It was an Iraqi decision, an Iraqi execution.â€
After Saddam was hanged, the United Nations urged Iraq to reconsider death sentences and Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, an opponent of capital punishment, said last week he thought there should be a delay in executing the other two condemned men. Talabani left the country on Sunday to visit Syria.
Reuters
But despite its efforts to avoid the uproar that marred the execution of the former president two weeks ago, news that the noose ripped the head from Saddam’s cancer-stricken half-brother as he plunged from the gallows appalled international critics of the process and fuelled fury among Saddam’s fellow Sunni Arabs.
On the defensive after Shi’ite sectarian taunts were heard in illicit film of Saddam’s execution, a spokesman for the Shi’ite-led government insisted there was “no violation of procedure†during the executions of his half-brother Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti (right) and former judge Awad Hamed al-Bander.
But defence lawyers and politicians from the once dominant Sunni Arab minority expressed anger at the fate of Barzan, Saddam’s once feared intelligence chief, and there was also scepticism and condemnation of Iraq’s Shi’ite-dominated leadership across the mostly Sunni-ruled Arab world.
Government officials showed journalists film of the two men standing side by side in orange jumpsuits on the scaffold, looking fearful before they were hooded and the nooses placed around their necks. There was no disturbance in the execution chamber — apparently the same one where Saddam died on December 30. Bander muttered the prayer: “There is no god but God.â€
Barzan, 55, a vocal presence during the year-long trial for crimes against humanity, appeared to tremble quietly. As the bodies plunged through the traps, Barzan’s hooded head flew off and came to rest beside his body in a pool of blood below the empty noose. Bander swung dead on his rope. Officials said they would not release the film publicly.
Government adviser Bassam al-Husseini said the damage to the body was “an act of Godâ€. During his trial for crimes against humanity over the killings of 148 Shi’ites from Dujail, a witness said Barzan’s agents put people in a meat grinder.
Hangmen gauge the length of rope needed to snap the neck of the condemned but not to create enough force to sever the head.
Saleem al-Jibouri, a senior Sunni Arab lawmaker, said Barzan may have been weakened by the cancer he was suffering from.
Barzan’s son-in-law hurled a sectarian insult at the government on pan-Arab Al Jazeera television: “As for ripping off his head, this is the grudge of the Safavids,†he said — a historical term referring to Shi’ite ties to non-Arab Iran.
“They have only came to Iraq for revenge,†Azzam Salih Abdullah said from Yemen. “May God curse this democracy.â€
The hangings took place at 3 a.m. (0000 GMT) at the same former secret police base where Saddam was hanged on Dec. 30, an adviser to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said. Officials tried to impose a media blackout for some hours but word leaked out.
The U.S. ambassador to Iraq said the executions were an entirely Iraqi affair with little U.S. involvement. Asked about the hangings, Zalmay Khalilzad told reporters: “It was an Iraqi process. It was an Iraqi decision, an Iraqi execution.â€
After Saddam was hanged, the United Nations urged Iraq to reconsider death sentences and Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, an opponent of capital punishment, said last week he thought there should be a delay in executing the other two condemned men. Talabani left the country on Sunday to visit Syria.
Reuters