WORLD / Middle East
Saddam's former deputy hanged
(AP)
Updated: 2007-03-20 09:58
BAGHDAD - Saddam Hussein's former deputy was hanged before dawn Tuesday
for the killings of 148 Shiites, an official with the prime minister's
office said.
Iraq's former vice president Taha Yassin Ramadan speaks during final
arguments for their trial in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone in
this July 27, 2006 file photo. [Reuters]
Taha Yassin Ramadan, who was Saddam's vice president when the regime was
ousted by the U.S.-led invasion that began four years ago Tuesday in
Iraq, was the fourth man to be executed in the killings following a 1982
assassination attempt against the former leader in the town of Dujail.
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Bassam al-Hassani, an adviser to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, said
precautions were taken to prevent a repeat of what happened to Saddam's
half brother and co-defendant Barzan Ibrahim, who was inadvertently
decapitated on the gallows during his January execution.
Ramadan, who was nearly 70, was weighed before the hanging and the length
of the rope was chosen accordingly, al-Hassani said.
The execution took place at 3:05 a.m. an Iraqi army and police base,
which had been the headquarters of Saddam's military intelligence, in a
predominantly Shiite district in northern Baghdad. Ramadan had been in
U.S. custody but was handed over to the Iraqis before the hanging,
according to al-Hassani, who witnessed the hanging.
The prosecutor read out the verdict of the appeals court upholding the
death sentence along with al-Maliki's decision to carry it out,
al-Hassani said, adding that a defense lawyer received Ramadan's written
will. The contents were not revealed.
Al-Hassani said the execution went smoothly, although Ramadan appeared
frightened and recited the two shahadahs -- a declaration of faith
repeated by Muslims -- "There is no God but Allah and Muhammad is his
Prophet."
Ramadan was convicted in November of murder, forced deportation and
torture and sentenced to life in prison. A month later, an appeals court
said the sentence was too lenient, and returned his case to the High
Tribunal, which sentenced him to death.
Ramadan, who became vice president in March 1991 and was a Revolutionary
Command Council member -- Iraq's highest political body under Saddam --
had maintained his innocence, saying his duties were limited to economic
affairs, not security issues.
Saddam was executed on Dec. 30 for his role in the killings. Two of his
co-defendants in the Dujail case -- Ibrahim, Saddam's former intelligence
chief, and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, former head of Iraq's Revolutionary
Court -- were executed in January.
Ibrahim plunged through the trap door and was beheaded by the jerk of the
thick rope at the end of his fall, causing a furor; the Iraqi government
said the decapitation was an accident. Saddam's execution drew
international outrage after a clandestine video showed the former
president being taunted on the gallows. Another leaked video showed
Saddam's corpse with a gaping neck wound.
Saddam's regime was predominantly Sunni and many members of the sect have
protested the executions on the grounds they are politically motivated by
the newly empowered Shiite majority in Iraq. International human rights
groups have, by and large, protested that the trial that found the men
guilty did not provide them with due legal process.
Around Iraq, meanwhile, bombs tore through a Shiite mosque during prayers
in Baghdad and struck several targets in the oil-rich city of Kirkuk on
Monday, killing at least 26 people.
The latest attacks highlighted the challenges facing U.S. and Iraqi
forces in their bid to curb sectarian bloodshed with the month-old
security crackdown. Execution-style killings usually blamed on Shiite
militias have fallen dramatically but bombings have not kept pace in the
downward trend.
Late Monday, U.S. and Iraqi troops engaged in a major operation as part
of the crackdown in the volatile Hurriyah neighborhood in northern
Baghdad, state television said. Witnesses said there were many people
reported holed up in two Shiite mosques, surrounded by U.S. forces.
The state-run Iraqiya network said six civilians had been killed. The
U.S. military did not immediately comment on the reports.
With the war entering its fifth year, President Bush pleaded for patience
as he faced Democrat-sponsored legislation that effectively would require
the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq by the fall of 2008. He said
his plan to curb violence by sending more U.S. troops to Baghdad and the
surrounding areas needed more time. Fewer than half the reinforcements
have arrived.
"There will be good days and bad days ahead as the security plan
unfolds," he said in a televised statement, adding that he had received
news of positive signs during a briefing on the war with his National
Security Council and in a video conference call with al-Maliki.
The first military action of the war occurred in the early morning on
March 20, 2003, in Baghdad, but it was still March 19 in the United
States.
Al-Maliki's office said the Shiite leader assured Bush in their half-hour
call that his government was pressing ahead with reconstruction and
political reforms and that it remained committed to national
reconciliation and the passage of a draft oil law.
Nobody claimed responsibility for Monday's bombings, but they bore the
hallmarks of Sunni insurgents.
The violence in Baghdad began shortly after the afternoon call to prayer
in a small green-domed mosque in the Shorja market area, where a truck
bomb killed 137 people last month.
Salah Baqir, a 42-year-old vendor who saw the attack, said the bomber
slipped past the guards and placed the explosives in a bag behind the
preacher's lectern. The blast left a crater and a pile of rubble on the
floor. At least eight worshippers were killed and 32 other people were
wounded, including the preacher, police said.
Iraqi authorities have imposed strict security in the area to prevent car
bombings that often target crowded markets, but Sunni insurgents have
proven resilient in finding ways to circumvent the stepped up security
since the start of the crackdown Feb. 14.
At least 18 people were killed and more than 50 wounded in a series of
bombings in Kirkuk, 180 miles north of Baghdad -- the most devastating
when two parked car bombs exploded within 10 minutes in a southern part
of the city. Fourteen civilians and four policemen were killed and 40
were wounded, police said.
In all, at least 55 Iraqis were killed or found dead in Iraq, including
the mayor of a Shiite village southeast of Baghdad and 29 bullet-riddled
bodies that turned up in the capital.
In the Sunni insurgent stronghold of Anbar province, police said at least
25 decomposed bodies -- some beheaded -- were found near a post office
east of the provincial capital Ramadi. The U.S. military said it had no
information on the report.
The U.S. military also said two Iraqi soldiers were killed and 12 were
wounded when explosives planted by insurgents in a building being used as
an observation post were detonated on Sunday, causing the structure to
collapse in Fallujah.
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