Special Report: Execution of
Saddam
Special report:Tension escalates in
Iraq
BAGHDAD, Dec. 30 (Xinhua) -- Some Iraqi officials
at the scene said Saturday morning that only Saddam Hussein was executed at
dawn, denying earlier media reports that two Saddam's aides were also executed,
reported the state TV station Iraqiya.
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Two boys walk in front of a picture of former
Iraq's president Saddam Hussein in a street in Tikrit, 175 km (110 miles)
north of Baghdad, December 29, 2006.(Xinhua/AFP Photo)
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Mowaffaq al-Rubaie, National Security Adviser, told
Iraqiya that the two co-defendants of Saddam, his half brother and intelligence
chief Barzan Hassan al-Tikriti and revolutionary court judge Awad Ahmed
al-Bandar, would be executed after the Eid al-Adha holiday, which ends on
Thursday.
"We wanted him to be executed on a special day," he
said.
Talking on Saddam' execution, al-Rubaie said that the
former dictator "totally surrendered" and did not resist. "He did not ask for
anything. He was carrying a Quran."
According to the official, a judge read the sentence to Saddam, who was taken in handcuffs to the execution room, where photographs and video footage were taken.
"Saddam's execution was 100 percent Iraqi and the
American side did not interfere," stressed al-Rubaie.
Meanwhile, Judge Moneer Haddad, who witnessed the
execution, also said that he had seen only Saddam.
Earlier, the state television quoted Foreign Ministry
official Mariam al-Rayis as saying that Saddam and his two co-accused were
hanged one after the other.
"It was between 5.30 am (0230 GMT) and 6.30 am (0330
GMT)" and "the whole thing was filmed," said the official, adding "Saddam was
hanged first, then Barzan, then Bandar."
U.S.-backed Iraqi TV Al Hurra reported in the early
morning that Saddam Hussein was executed by hanging shortly before 6 a.m. (0300
GMT) Saturday.
The execution took place after Saddam, who was born
on April 28,1937, and was deposed by the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, was
handed over to the Iraqi authorities from a U.S. camp near Baghdad international
airport where he had been held.
On Nov. 5, a panel of five Iraqi judges sentenced
Saddam, his half-brother Barzan al-Tikriti and Iraq's former chief judge Awad
Hamed al-Bandar to death by hanging for killing of 148 people in Dujail, some 60
km north of Baghdad.
On Dec. 3, the defense lawyers of Saddam officially
appealed to the higher court against the death penalty imposed on Saddam and
another two codefendants.
However, the Iraqi appellate court chief announced on
Tuesday that the court had upheld the death sentence for Saddam Hussein.
