Saddam half brother, ex-official hanged

15/01/2007| IslamWeb

Saddam Hussein's half brother and the former head of Iraq's revolutionary court have both been hanged in Baghdad.

Barzan Ibrahim Hassan al-Tikriti, also Iraq's former intelligence chief, and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, had been found guilty along with Saddam in the killing of 148 Iraqis.

"The two convicts have been hanged to death," Ali al-Dabbagh, an Iraqi government spokesman, told a news conference.

The hanging took place 16 days after Saddam Hussein was executed in chaotic scenes that drew criticism from around the world.

The government spokesman said that al-Tikriti and Bandar were treated with dignity before the execution and those who attended were asked to sign a document saying they would not taunt or insult the men during the event.

The bodies have been turned over to police and family members have been asked to retrieve them for burial, a source told the AFP news agency.

The United Nations had urged Iraq not to go ahead with the executions.

Death sentences

The two men were sentenced to death for crimes against humanity on November 5 for their part in the killings of the Iraqis in 1982 in retaliation for an attempted assassination of Saddam in the town of Dujail, north of Baghdad.

They had been due to be executed within a month of losing their appeal on December 26.

The pair were to have been hanged along with Saddam on December 30, but Iraqi authorities decided to execute Saddam alone on what Mowaffak al-Rubaie, Iraq's National Security adviser, called a "special day".

The executions reportedly occurred in the same Saddam-era military intelligence headquarters building in north Baghdad where the former leader was hanged two days before the end of 2006, an Iraqi general, who declined to be named, told AP.

The United States responded to the executions by saying that the Iraqi government was bringing "justice" to those guilty of crimes.

Unruly scene

Images of Saddam's execution showed an unruly scene that brought worldwide criticism of the Iraqi government.

Video of the execution, recorded on a cell phone camera, showed the former dictator being taunted on the gallows shortly before his death.

Barzan, one of Saddam's three half-brothers, was the former head of the Mukhabarat intelligence service during the 1980s and one of the most feared men in Iraq.

PHOTO CAPTION

Awad Hamed al-Bandar, head of Iraq's former revolutionary court, chants 'God is Great' while being sentenced to death during his trial held under tight security in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone, in this Sunday Nov. 5, 2006 file photo. (AP)