Top Story USA
15
January 2007
Saddam Hussein's
co-defendants executed
Saddam Hussein’s half brother and the former head of
Iraq's Revolutionary Court have been hanged before dawn Monday,
two weeks and two days after the former Iraqi dictator was hanged
in a chaotic execution that has provoked widespread criticism
across the world.
Barzan Ibrahim, and Awad Hamed al-Bandar had been found guilty
along with Saddam of in the killing of 148 Shiite Muslims after
a 1982 assassination attempt on the former Iraqi dictator in
the town of Dujail north of Baghdad.
The executions took place in north Baghdad’s military
intelligence headquarters building, located in the Shiite neighborhood
of Kazimiyah.
Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti was Saddam Hussein’s half-brother
and served as the head of Mukhabarat, the secret police under
the former regime. Holding a senior position in the Iraqi government
at the time of the US-led invasion of 2003 on Iraq, he was a
key target for capture.
Awad Hamad al-Bandar, chief justice of the Iraqi Revolutionary
Court, had issued death sentences against 143 Dujail residents,
in the aftermath of the failed assassination attempt on Saddam
Hussein.
The executions were carried out against a backdrop of lingering
concern in the Middle East country as well as world over the
manner of the former Iraqi President’s execution.
Last week, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani urged the government
to delay the executions.
The Iraqi government has no plans to make public a video of
the executions. Plans were being made to hand over the bodies
of Hassan and Bandar to their families for burial.
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