Region | Iraq
Film shows half-brother beheaded
Government officials show journalists a film of the hanging of Saddam Hussain's aides, which also reveals how his half-brother's head was ripped off by the noose.
- Agencies
- Published: 00:00 January 15, 2007
- Saddam Hussain's half-brother Barzan Ebrahim Al Tikriti (right), and former judge of the revolutionary court Awad Hamed Al Bander, were hanged in Baghdad on Monday morning.
- Image Credit:
Tikrit, Iraq: Iraqi Shiites, oppressed by Saddam Hussain, welcomed the hanging of two of his aides on Monday though some also joined Sunni Arabs in expressing shock that his half-brother's head was ripped off by the noose.
Saddam's two co-defendants were hanged before dawn on Monday, the Iraqi government said, but admitted that the head of his half-brother, Barzan Ebrahim Al Tikriti, was also torn from his body by the force of the rope during the execution.
Government officials showed journalists a film of the two men standing side by side in orange jumpsuits, looking fearful before they were hooded and the nooses placed around their necks.
The men were hanged in the execution chamber where Saddam died on December 30. Former judge Awad Hamed Al Bander muttered a prayer, while Barzan appeared to tremble.
As the bodies plunged through the traps, Barzan's hooded head was severed by the force of the rope. Bander swung dead on his rope. Officials said they would not release the film publicly.
Government adviser Bassam Al Husseini called the damage "an act of God". During his trial for the Dujail massacre in the 1980s, a witness said that Barzan's agents put people in a meat grinder.
Government spokesman Ali Al Dabbagh insisted there was "no violation of procedure" during the executions. Sunni lawmaker Saleem Al Jibouri said Barzan's body may have been weakened by his cancer.
"The convicts were not subjected to any mistreatment," Al Dabbagh said describing the beheading by the rope as a rare mishap. "Their rights were not violated. There was no chanting."
However, defence lawyers and politicians from Saddam's Sunni Arab minority expressed fury at the fate of Barzan, and expressed some scepticism at the incident.
Reference works on judicial killing do assert that decapitation is a possibility during hanging. But the admission that Barzan suffered such a fate sparked suspicion and anger, especially in Tikrit.
"There is no way a head would be ripped off the body during a hanging. I'm sure they mutilated the bodies after they hanged them," said Ahmad Mustafa from Mosul.
Some Shiites too, however, were troubled by the hanging. "They deserved to be hanged. Justice has taken its course," said Issam Abdullah from Safwan, an overwhelmingly Shiite town south of Iraq.
Ali Abbas Ridha, a Shiite in Mosul, said he feared the executions would provoke violence. "What they've done incites people to sectarianism even more. Whether they were executed or not, what's the use of it?" he said.
In Sadr City, the Baghdad stronghold of the Mehdi Army, a militia loyal to Shiite cleric Moqtada Al Sadr, there was celebration at the executions, though some said hanging was the least the two aides of Saddam deserved.
"They should have been put in a cage and handed over to the Iraqis," said Sadr City resident Ali Jassim.
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