Saddam Hussein executed Deposed Iraqi dictator hanged for deaths of 148 Shiites in 1982 http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16389128/ BREAKING NEWS NBC, MSNBC and news services Updated: 11:29 p.m. ET Dec. 29, 2006 BAGHDAD, Iraq - Three years after he was hauled from a hole in the ground by pursuing U.S. forces, Saddam Hussein was hanged Saturday under a sentence imposed by an Iraqi court, an Iraqi official told NBC News. The deposed president was found guilty over the killing of 148 members of the Shiite population of the town of Dujail after militants tried to assassinate him there in 1982, during Iraq’s war with Shiite Iran. Asked if Saddam were dead, the official in the Iraqi prime minister's office said, “Yes, the body of Saddam Hussein is in front of me.”
"Criminal Saddam was hanged to death," state-run Iraqiya television said. The station played patriotic music and showed images of national monuments and other landmarks. Saddam's half-brother Barzan al-Tikriti and Awad al-Bander, the former chief justice of the Revolutionary Court, were also hanged in connection with the Dujail killings, Iraqiya reported. "The execution started with criminal Saddam, then Barzan, then Awad al-Bandar," an Iraqiya announcer said. NBC News reported that gunfire, presumably celebratory, could be heard in Baghdad after the executions. It was a grim end for the 69-year-old leader who had vexed three U.S. presidents. Despite his ouster, Washington, its allies and the new Iraqi leaders remain mired in a fight to quell a stubborn insurgency by Saddam loyalists and a vicious sectarian conflict. Mariam al-Rayes, a legal expert and former member of parliament, told Iraqiya television that the execution "was filmed and God willing it will be shown. There was one camera present, and a doctor was also present there." Al-Reyes did not attend the execution. She said Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki did not attend, but was represented by an aide. The official witnesses to the execution gathered Friday in Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone in final preparation for the hanging, as state television broadcast footage of his regime’s atrocities. The Pentagon said U.S. forces, always on high alert in Iraq, were braced for any upsurge in violence from Sunni insurgents loyal to Saddam. A U.S. judge refused late Friday to stop the execution, rejecting a last-minute court challenge by the former Iraqi president. "Petitioner Hussein's application for immediate, temporary stay of execution is denied," U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly said in Washington after a hearing over the telephone with attorneys. An Iraqi appeals court upheld Saddam’s death sentence Tuesday for the killing of 148 people who were detained and tortured after the attempt on his life. Prime Minister al-Maliki said in statements released Friday that those who opposed the execution of Saddam were insulting the honor of his victims. His office said he made the remarks in a meeting with families of people who died during Saddam’s rule. “Our respect for human rights requires us to execute him,” al-Maliki said. "Petitioner Hussein's application for immediate, temporary stay of execution is denied," U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly said in Washington after a hearing over the telephone with attorneys. An Iraqi appeals court upheld Saddam’s death sentence Tuesday for the killing of 148 people who were detained and tortured after the attempt on his life. Prime Minister al-Maliki said in statements released Friday that those who opposed the execution of Saddam were insulting the honor of his victims. His office said he made the remarks in a meeting with families of people who died during Saddam’s rule. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
