The spokesman for the Iraqi government Dr. Ali al-Dabbagh showed journalists on Monday a video tape recording the execution of Saddam's two aides during which one of them was beheaded. The film shows Barzan al-Tikriti, Saddam's half brother, and Awwad al-Bander, former revolutionary court chief judge, in prisoners orange uniforms as they were standing on gallows in preparation for hanging side by side. Hangmen placed black hoods round the two men's heads, then the noose for carrying out the execution. The video tape also showed Barzan al-Tikriti lying headless below the gallows, his severed head several yards away."Yo, Mahmoud! Roll that thing over here, wouldja?"
The Iraqi former President Saddam Hussein's half-brother Barzan al-Tikriti and former revolutionary court chief judge Awwad al-Bandar were hanged at dawn Monday in Baghdad. Saddam Hussein and his two aides were convicted of involvement in the killing of 148 civilians in the village of Dujail after a failed attempt to kill the former president.
| Any chance we can show that film on Saturday night at Gitmo? |
Saddam's half-brother Tikriti and former revolutionary court chief judge Bandar were hanged on Monday in Baghdad, 16 days after the execution of Saddam. The three were convicted of involvement in the killing of 148 civilians in the village of Dujail after a failed attempt to kill the former president. "It is a joy to get rid of every tyrant who killed Iraqis. This is the fate of every murderer and we have to understand the new Iraq can not be established with the presence of criminals and tyrants," Jamal al-Taai, a civil servant, said.
Saleem al-Asadi, another civil servant, said the joy of the execution of the two aides came a little late. "The government should have executed Barzan and Bandar together with Saddam so that the joy is much bigger and we can say that we got rid of the criminals," he said. Revealing his personal vendetta against Bandar, Asadi said: "Bandar sentenced my brother to death, leaving mother to grieve over him until she died."
Media worker Jihad al-Asadi said Monday's executions turned over a dark page in the history of Iraq. But Mohannad Hussein exclaimed, "What benefit will I get from the hanging of Barzan and Awwad?"
"I no longer think of those people... I have to get through my day in conditions harsher than what some might think," he said. "I will be really happy when I find electricity, water and fuel available and prices affordable. Only then I will say that execution is useful," Hussein said.
For Hussein al-Hasnawi, a former political prisoner, Iraqi people would not rest even if all the lackeys of the former regime were hanged. "The mistakes of today's politicians are far graver than the executions and the joy they bring," he explained.
