Saddam Hussein executed

[Parveen Komal]

Saddam Hussein's half-brother and a former judge were hanged at dawn on Monday, 16 days after the ousted Iraqi president was executed, senior officials said as the government tried to maintain a media blackout. "It's true. The government will confirm it," one official source told Reuters, adding Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's government was trying to control the flow of information after illicit video of Saddam's death prompted international uproar.

[India1989]

I think you should rather check your knowledge. You chinese have no knowledge so don't talk shit. When you are so illiterate then don't try to comment. freaking naive eh.

[Parveen Komal]

Dear India1989 I deleted the Chinese post thanks for your support on Indiabook forum

[Parveen Komal]

The official video of hanging of Saddam Hussein's co-defendants screened for reporters Monday showed the former leader's half brother lying headless below the gallows, his severed head several yards away. The video shows Barzan Ibrahim, Saddam's half brother and former intelligence chief, and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, head of Iraq's Revolutionary Court, being hanged side by side.

After the trap doors opened, al-Bandar could be seen dangling from the rope. Ibrahim's body was lying on the floor, chest down, his severed head resting several yards away.

[Parveen Komal]

The official video of the hanging of Saddam Hussein's co-defendants screened for reporters Monday showed the former leader's half brother lying headless below the gallows, his severed head several yards away. The video shows Barzan Ibrahim, Saddam's half brother and former intelligence chief, and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, head of Iraq's Revolutionary Court, being hanged side by side.

After the trap doors opened, al-Bandar could be seen dangling from the rope. Ibrahim's body was lying on the floor, chest down, his severed head resting several yards away.

The execution was conducted on the same gallows where Saddam was hanged Dec. 30.

Government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said the gallows were built to international standards and in accordance with human rights organizations

[Parveen Komal]

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.

[Parveen Komal]

In Baghdad, government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh confirmed the executions. He said that Ibrahim's head had been severed during the hanging in what he called "a rare incident."

[Parveen Komal]

Barzan's hooded head flew off and came to rest beside his body in a pool of blood below the empty noose under the gallows. Bander swung dead on his rope.

[Parveen Komal]

Khalaf al-Olayan, a leader of the main Sunni bloc in parliament, demanded to see any video taken during the execution.


"It is impossible for a person to be decapitated during a hanging," he told Al-Jazeera television. "This shows that they (the government) have mutilated the body and this is a violation of the law."


"We want to see the video that was taken during the execution of the two men in order for them (government) to prove what they are saying," he added.

[Parveen Komal]

Giovanni di Stefano, an Italian lawyer and one of several non-Arab attorneys who consulted for core team defending Saddam and his associates told The Associated Press that the petitions were "deposited with the office of the president yesterday."
The Iraqi constitution gives the president power to commute death sentences.
It could not be immediately confirmed whether Iraqi President Jalal Talabani was informed about the lawyer's appeal because on Sunday he began a visit to Syria that continued Monday. Talabani has said that he personally opposes the death penalty.



Di Stefano submitted his petition after holding separate meetings three days ago with Ibrahim and al-Bandar. Issam Ghazawi, a Jordanian lawyer who sat on Saddam's defense team was present with the Italian lawyer at the meetings.
Ghazawi told the AP that Ibrahim and al-Bandar informed him three days ago in separate meetings that they "preferred to die" rather than to personally ask Iraqi President Jalal Talabani to intervene to commute their death sentences.
Ghazawi recalled that Ibrahim said he would "rather die" than "plead for mercy" from Talabani.
Al-Bandar was also defiant, calling a petition for clemency "shameful," Ghazawi said. "Death is much better than asking for their mercy," the lawyer recalled al-Bandar as saying about the Iraqi government.
But di Giovanni understood that the pair did not object to his seeking clemency for them, only that they refused to personally sign any petition to the Iraqi president.
Ghazawi recalled each of the men using dismissive expressions similar to "do what you wish, but we will not sign," he recalled. He felt that the comments meant that the men did not want their lawyers to seek clemency for them.
But Badee Izzat Aref, an Iraqi lawyer who also saw Ibrahim and al-Bandar last week, told al-Arabiya TV that neither of the men objected to asking foreign leaders or non-governmental organizations to urge the Iraqi president to commute their sentences.
Ibrahim asked that any appeals mention that he had cancer of the spine, Aref said. Ibrahim also asked the lawyer to launch an appeal through a U.S. Federal Court.
Ghazawi disputed Aref's account calling it "wrong because our clients did not make these requests."

[Parveen Komal]

he U.S. ambassador to Iraq said the execution of two of Saddam Hussein's senior aides on Monday was an entirely Iraqi affair with little U.S.
involvement. Asked about the hangings, in which Saddam's half-brother was beheaded by the noose, Zalmay Khalilzad told reporters: "It was an Iraqi process. It was an Iraqi decision, an Iraqi execution." U.S. forces had held the two during their trial for crimes against humanity and, like Saddam two weeks ago, U.S. troops transported them to the gallows, government sources said.

[sunandadhawan]

I think executing saddam hussein is right solution. Because he was againt humanity. He is responsible for number of crimes. Releasing such a person means to get ready ur self to face another misshappening. as if he was released his supporters would save him from other punishment he would assigned. If a person has done someting wrong once against humanity, its a mistake which wll be foregiven. But if a person do those illrelevant mistakes again and again its a crime and that wll not be foregiven

[denhou1974]

"The death penalty was carried out following the guilty verdict in Saddam’s trial for the killing of 148 Shiite men and boys from the town of Dujail after militants tried to assassinate him there in 1982, during Iraq’s war with Shiite Iran."



If he was convicted of this crime and death is the penalty for this type of crime in Iraq then I don't see a problem.

I don't know if he got a fair trail. Again what is fair in my country may not be fair in Iraq.

My personal opinion - In a wartime situation, leaders of a nation should not be executed.

[nameeta]

Graffiti, flowers on anniversary of Saddam execution

Black graffiti lauding Saddam Hussein appeared overnight in his home town and small groups of mourners turned out at his grave on Sunday, the first anniversary of the former Iraqi leader's execution.

"There is no life without the sun and no dignity without Saddam," read one painted slogan in his home town, Tikrit, north of Baghdad. "Paradise for the hero Saddam," read another.

The graffiti appeared on buildings including the town's police station and its agriculture and electricity directorates.

Saddam was hanged for crimes against humanity in a rushed execution criticised by the international community. Fellow Sunni Arabs were also angered by illicitly filmed footage that showed Shi'ite officials taunting him on the gallows.

[Cyphor]

History has proven that the death of a dictator doesn't wipe off his legacy as the dictator continues to survive in the hearts of his followers and believers more intensely than a national hero or a leader would do. Be it Hitler or Saddam, for the followers the death of a dictator seems to stand for nothing but absolute patriotism and dignity. No dictator is born without an assurance. No dictator can survive without a loyal company. And no dictator is alone in his quest for power and sovereignty.

And oddly enough, it's the same mankind that has hailed the dictorship from time to time, it's the same mankind that has fought for its end, and it's the same mankind that has perished under it.

Diversity is the mark of mankind and it is the worst curse on it, too.