BAGHDAD, January
3, -- Iraq will execute two former henchmen of
Saddam Hussein on Thursday, five days after the
former dictator was himself hanged in Baghdad, an
official at the Iraqi prime minister's office has
said.
Saddam's half-brother and former head of
intelligence, Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti, and Awad
Ahmed al-Bandar, the former chief judge of
revolutionary court, will be hanged at dawn on
Thursday, the official said Wednesday.
"Their documents have been signed and they will be
executed Thursday," he told AFP, speaking on
condition of anonymity, adding that the pair remains
for the time being in the custody of US authorities.
On November 5, the two were found guilty along with
Saddam by an Iraqi court of ordering the massacre of
148 Shiites from Dujail village in the 1980s in
revenge for an failed attempt on the then
president's life.
Saddam was hanged on December 30 at a former torture
centre in Baghdad's Shiite district of Kadhimiyah
and buried a day later at his home village of Awja
in northern Iraq.
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Barzan al-Tikriti, Saddam Hussein's half-brother and
former Iraqi intelligence chief |
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Barzan and Bandar were to have been hanged along
with Saddam, but their execution was later postponed
as "we did not have time on that day," the official
in Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's office said.
The Iraqi government wanted to complete Saddam's
execution before sunrise, which marked the start of
Eid al-Adha, one of Islam's holiest holidays and
traditionally a time for forgiveness. The festival
ends on Wednesday.
Hot-tempered and secretive, Barzan was one of
Saddam's most trusted aides, while Bandar was the
first judge to be tried for ordering executions
since Nazi judges were brought before the Nuremberg
trials after World War II.
Saddam's execution, meanwhile, has dramatically
increased tension between Iraq's already feuding
Sunni and Shiite communities, especially after a
grisly video showing the Sunni leader taunted by
Shiite hangmen surfaced.
On Tuesday, Maliki launched an inquiry into the
source of the grainy yet graphic video, apparently
taken with a mobile phone, which has enraged Sunni
Arabs across Iraq and offended international
leaders.
"He's very serious about this inquiry, and he wants
to punish whoever is responsible," said a Shiite
lawmaker with close links to the prime minister.
The unofficial footage shows Saddam taunted by
Shiite guards shouting the name of radical Shiite
cleric Moqtada al-Sadr -- making the execution look
more like a sectarian lynching than a court-directed
punishment.
It appeared on the Internet, and was exchanged
between Iraqi mobile phones.
Sami al-Askari, a senior official who attended the
execution, said Maliki had ordered a three-member
panel of inquiry to find which of those present at
the hanging had filmed the execution.
Interior Ministry spokesman Brigadier General Abdel
Karim Khalaf said the committee was "working
secretly and we can't give details (but) whoever is
responsible for leaking the film will be punished."
On Tuesday, Munqith al-Faroon, the prosecutor who
oversaw the execution, said on Al-Jazeera television
there were only two people who had mobile phones
inside the room. "They were senior government
officials," he said.
Aside from Askari, who has denied filming, there
were a handful of other officials present at the
hanging, including National Security Adviser
Mowaffaq al-Rubaie, who was not available for
comment.
That someone in the party executing Saddam should be
a Sadr supporter has angered Sunnis and has given a
sectarian colour to the hanging of one of the most
powerful Sunni Arab leaders.
The footage ends with Saddam -- convicted for crimes
against humanity -- falling though the trapdoor of
the gallows amid shouts from the crowd.
US military spokesman Major General William Caldwell
said US forces handed "physical control" of Saddam
to Iraqi officials shortly before the hanging, and
all US personnel had left the Iraqi prison facility
before it took place.
"It's a sovereign nation. It's their decision and
it's their responsibility to decide how things go
from there," he said.
"If you're asking me if we would have done things
differently, yes we would have. But that's not our
decision, that's the government of Iraq's decision."
The controversy comes at a time when most Iraqi and
US strategies have failed to curb the sectarian
killings and has forced US President George W. Bush
to seek a new strategy to beat the extremist
factions driving the violence.
AFP
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