alkathiri
As-Shafaa'i(Brother)
Taha Yassin Hanged for Dujail Killings
Tue Dec 19 2006
BAGHDAD, 21 March 2007 — Saddam Hussein’s former deputy was hanged before dawn yesterday, the fourth man to be executed in the killings of 148 Shiites following a 1982 assassination attempt against the former leader in the town of Dujail.
Taha Yassin Ramadan, who was Saddam’s vice president when the regime was ousted, went to the gallows on the fourth anniversary of the start of the war in Iraq. Bassam Al-Hassani, an adviser to Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki, said the execution went smoothly after Ramadan recited the Shahadah (the Muslim declaration of faith — “There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is his Prophet”).
Hassani said precautions were taken to prevent a repeat of what happened to Saddam’s half brother and co-defendant Barzan Ibrahim Al-Tikriti, who was inadvertently decapitated on the gallows during his January execution.
Ramadan, who was nearly 70, was weighed before the hanging and the rope was chosen accordingly, Hassani said.
The execution took place at 3.05 a.m. at a prison at 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 US custody but was handed over to the Iraqis about an hour before the hanging, according to Hassani, who witnessed the hanging. It was carried out despite appeals from international human rights groups. Russia also criticized the act yesterday. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said “it adds nothing positive to the efforts being made to resolve the situation” in Iraq.
US Embassy spokesman Lou Fintor said it was an Iraqi decision but stressed “the trial has by most accounts met the basic standards of international justice.”
Maliki has not attended any of the executions, but representatives from his office, a judge and a prosecutor attended the hanging, along with members of the Justice and Interior Ministries and a physician.
The prosecutor read out the court verdict upholding the death sentence and Maliki’s decision to carry it out, the adviser said, adding that a defense lawyer who attended the execution received Ramadan’s written will. The contents were not revealed, although Yahya Ibrahim, a Sunni religious figure and member of the influential Association of Muslim Scholars, later said Ramadan had asked to be buried near Saddam.
He was later buried at Ouja, on the outskirts of Tikrit.
Source:www.aljazeera.com/muslims.net/content_one.asp
Tue Dec 19 2006
BAGHDAD, 21 March 2007 — Saddam Hussein’s former deputy was hanged before dawn yesterday, the fourth man to be executed in the killings of 148 Shiites following a 1982 assassination attempt against the former leader in the town of Dujail.
Taha Yassin Ramadan, who was Saddam’s vice president when the regime was ousted, went to the gallows on the fourth anniversary of the start of the war in Iraq. Bassam Al-Hassani, an adviser to Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki, said the execution went smoothly after Ramadan recited the Shahadah (the Muslim declaration of faith — “There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is his Prophet”).
Hassani said precautions were taken to prevent a repeat of what happened to Saddam’s half brother and co-defendant Barzan Ibrahim Al-Tikriti, who was inadvertently decapitated on the gallows during his January execution.
Ramadan, who was nearly 70, was weighed before the hanging and the rope was chosen accordingly, Hassani said.
The execution took place at 3.05 a.m. at a prison at 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 US custody but was handed over to the Iraqis about an hour before the hanging, according to Hassani, who witnessed the hanging. It was carried out despite appeals from international human rights groups. Russia also criticized the act yesterday. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said “it adds nothing positive to the efforts being made to resolve the situation” in Iraq.
US Embassy spokesman Lou Fintor said it was an Iraqi decision but stressed “the trial has by most accounts met the basic standards of international justice.”
Maliki has not attended any of the executions, but representatives from his office, a judge and a prosecutor attended the hanging, along with members of the Justice and Interior Ministries and a physician.
The prosecutor read out the court verdict upholding the death sentence and Maliki’s decision to carry it out, the adviser said, adding that a defense lawyer who attended the execution received Ramadan’s written will. The contents were not revealed, although Yahya Ibrahim, a Sunni religious figure and member of the influential Association of Muslim Scholars, later said Ramadan had asked to be buried near Saddam.
He was later buried at Ouja, on the outskirts of Tikrit.
Source:www.aljazeera.com/muslims.net/content_one.asp
