Film shows brother beheaded
Agencies



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.

http://www.gulfnews.com/region/Iraq/10097016.html

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