Region | Iraq
'Fallen tyrant' taunted, footage shows
"The tyrant has fallen," a witness shouted after Saddam Hussain dropped through the trap door of the gallows, his neck broken in an instant by the rope, moments after exchanging sectarian taunts with onlookers.
- Reuters
- Published: 00:00 January 1, 2007
- Image Credit:
Baghdad: "The tyrant has fallen," a witness shouted after Saddam Hussain dropped through the trap door of the gallows, his neck broken in an instant by the rope, moments after exchanging sectarian taunts with onlookers.
Grainy footage of the execution, apparently shot on a mobile phone by a witness who was standing below looking up at the gallows, was circulating widely on the internet yesterday, a day after Saddam was hanged for crimes against humanity.
As the hangmen prepare him for his final moment, some of those invited to attend standing below the platform taunted the former president, who was executed on Saturday before dawn.
'Is this what we can expect'
One man shouts "Moqtada, Moqtada, Moqtada", a reference to cleric Moqtada Al Sadr, who heads a powerful Shiite political movement and a militia blamed by Washington and Sunni Arabs for running death squads targeting Saddam's Sunni Arab community.
"Moqtada!" Saddam replies, with disdain. "This is what we can expect?"
Another voice can be heard shouting "Long live Mohammad Baqir Al Sadr," referring to a relative of Moqtada Al Sadr killed in the 1980s.
The presence of Al Sadr's supporters among Saddam's executioners may fuel charges by Saddam's defence lawyers and his supporters among the once dominant Sunni Arab minority that the whole process has been "victors' justice".
Another witness shouts at one point, "Go to hell", prompting an official to try to stop such taunts, saying: "No, please don't [say that]".
The video, lasting about two-and-a-half minutes, shows Saddam drop through the trap door while still intoning the Muslim profession of faith. He was abruptly cut off in the second verse: "I bear witness that Mohammad..."
Angry slogans
After he falls, the cry "The tyrant has fallen" is audible over shouting and other comments that could not be made out.
The video bore out witness comments that the 69-year-old former leader, who looked calm and composed as he stood on the gallows in an official video broadcast on Saturday, had shouted angry political slogans while masked guards were bringing him into the execution chamber once used by his own feared intelligence services.
Towards the end of the film, Saddam's body is shown swinging, eyes partly open and the neck bent almost at right angles to one side.
The film is punctuated by flashes, apparently as witnesses took photographs.
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