Ousted Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein hanged to death

Saturday, December 30, 2006, Zill-Haj 8, 1427 A.H.

BAGHDAD: Ousted Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein has been hanged to death here couple of hours after he was handed over to Iraqi authorities by the US, the reports said.

Saddam's half-brother Barzan Ibrahim and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, the former chief justice of the Revolutionary Court, were also hanged to death.

The scaffolding where Hussein was hanged was in Baghdad's Green Zone, the center of power for coalition officials.

The security was beefed up in the surroundings of Green Zone to avoid any untoward incident during the execution.

Munir Haddad, a judge on the appeals court, a cleric and a physician were present at the site. According to Iraqi law, these people have to be present at the execution, that is why they were told to remain there on standby waiting for orders for the government.

Other parliament members, government officials, relatives of victims of Saddam's brutal rule also attended the hanging.

Saddam Hussein was sentenced to death by an Iraqi court on 5 November after a year-long trial over the killings of 148 Shias from the village of Dujail in the 1980s.

A trial in a second case, alleging genocide against Kurds, continued against him.
The former Iraqi leader was captured by US troops on 13 December 2003, after a tip-off. He was found hiding in a tiny cellar at a farmhouse near his hometown of Tikrit.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/update_detail.asp?id=15350