Saddam aides hanged

BAGHDAD – Two of Saddam Hussein’s aides were hanged before dawn yesterday, the Iraqi government said, admitting that the head of his half-brother Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti was also ripped from his body during the execution.

On the defensive after international uproar over sectarian taunts during the illicitly filmed hanging of the ousted president two weeks ago, government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh insisted there was “no violation of procedure” during the executions of Barzan and former judge Awad Hamed al-Bander. But defence lawyers and politicians from Saddam’s once dominant Sunni Arab minority expressed fury at the fate of Barzan, Saddam’s once feared intelligence chief, and there was also scepticism and condemnation of Iraq’s Shi’ite-dominated government across the mostly Sunni-ruled Arab world.”The convicts were not subjected to any mistreatment,” Dabbagh said describing the beheading by the rope as a rare mishap.”Their rights were not violated.There was no chanting.”Government adviser Bassam al-Husseini said the damage to the body was “an act of God”.During his trial for crimes against humanity over the killings of 148 Shi’ites from Dujail, a witness said Barzan’s agents put people in a meat grinder.The treatment of corpses is a particularly sensitive issue in Muslim culture.Video footage of Saddam’s body lying on a trolley showed what appeared to be a wound on his throat.Hangmen gauge the length of rope needed to snap the neck of the condemned but not create enough force to sever the head.Saleem al-Jibouri, a senior Sunni Arab member of parliament, told Reuters Barzan’s body may have been weakened by the cancer he was suffering: “But we have doubts and we want to ask experts and doctors if it’s possible the head can come off,” he said.Others were less cautious.Defence lawyer Issam al-Ghazzawi predicted anger on the streets: “When a man is hanged, he does not lose his head …The way Barzan was executed is shameful.”Local officials said Barzan would be buried close to Saddam in their home village of Awja, near the northern city of Tikrit.Muslim tradition dictates that they be interred within a day.After Saddam was hanged amid sectarian taunts captured on film, the United Nations urged Iraq to reconsider further death sentences and Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, an opponent of capital punishment, said last week he thought there should be a delay in executing the other two condemned men.Talabani left the country on Sunday to visit Syria.The emergence of illicit mobile phone video showing Saddam being taunted by Shi’ite observers at his execution, four days after his appeal failed, angered many Sunni Arabs, embarrassed the Shi’ite-led government and the US administration and raised sectarian tensions in a nation on the brink of civil war.Nampa-ReutersBut defence lawyers and politicians from Saddam’s once dominant Sunni Arab minority expressed fury at the fate of Barzan, Saddam’s once feared intelligence chief, and there was also scepticism and condemnation of Iraq’s Shi’ite-dominated government across the mostly Sunni-ruled Arab world. “The convicts were not subjected to any mistreatment,” Dabbagh said describing the beheading by the rope as a rare mishap.”Their rights were not violated.There was no chanting.”Government adviser Bassam al-Husseini said the damage to the body was “an act of God”.During his trial for crimes against humanity over the killings of 148 Shi’ites from Dujail, a witness said Barzan’s agents put people in a meat grinder.The treatment of corpses is a particularly sensitive issue in Muslim culture.Video footage of Saddam’s body lying on a trolley showed what appeared to be a wound on his throat.Hangmen gauge the length of rope needed to snap the neck of the condemned but not create enough force to sever the head.Saleem al-Jibouri, a senior Sunni Arab member of parliament, told Reuters Barzan’s body may have been weakened by the cancer he was suffering: “But we have doubts and we want to ask experts and doctors if it’s possible the head can come off,” he said.Others were less cautious.Defence lawyer Issam al-Ghazzawi predicted anger on the streets: “When a man is hanged, he does not lose his head …The way Barzan was executed is shameful.”Local officials said Barzan would be buried close to Saddam in their home village of Awja, near the northern city of Tikrit.Muslim tradition dictates that they be interred within a day.After Saddam was hanged amid sectarian taunts captured on film, the United Nations urged Iraq to reconsider further death sentences and Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, an opponent of capital punishment, said last week he thought there should be a delay in executing the other two condemned men.Talabani left the country on Sunday to visit Syria.The emergence of illicit mobile phone video showing Saddam being taunted by Shi’ite observers at his execution, four days after his appeal failed, angered many Sunni Arabs, embarrassed the Shi’ite-led government and the US administration and raised sectarian tensions in a nation on the brink of civil war.Nampa-Reuters