The death penalty against the 69-year-old Iraqi leader unleashed the joy of the Shiite community, the majority in Iraq, and the Kurds, oppressed during Hussein’s presidency between 1979 and 2003.
But it also exposed the resentment that existed in the country towards Sunni Arabs who had backed the ex-autocrat, from the socialist Baath party.
“The court has decided to sentence Saddam Hussein al Majid to be hanged for crimes against humanity,” said Judge Rauf Abdelrrahman, following an 11-month trial in which he was held responsible for torture, deportation and the murder of 148 Shiites, occurred on July 8, 1982 in Dujail.
In this way, Hussein had taken revenge for a frustrated attack against him, orchestrated by the Shiite Dawa party, according to press reports.
The magistrate, of Kurdish origin, rejected the previous request of the former Iraqi dictator to be executed by a military squad and, on the other hand, sentenced to death Barzan al Takriti, Hussein’s half-brother and head of his secret police, and of the then magistrate. Supreme Awad al Bander.
The once strong man of Iraq, who held in one hand a copy of the Koran, the holy book of Muslims, did not have any gesture of repentance when he learned the sentence.
And before he was hanged, he said: “Alahu Akbar!” and “Long live Iraq!”
Hussein was an ally of the United States in Iraq’s war against Iran between 1980 and 1988, but his good fortune fell sharply when the Iraqi leader invaded Kuwait from August 2-4, 1990.
The invasion of the small emirate was condemned by the government of former US President George HW Bush, and all the world powers of those years, including the former Soviet Union of Mikhail Gorbachev.
Thus, the United States and its main allies launched the “Operation Desert Storm” to liberate Kuwait, after which the Iraqis were defeated militarily, but before withdrawing from said territory they set fire to the Kuwaiti oil wells.
After the attacks of September 11, 2001 against the United States, attributed by the White House to the Islamist network Al Qaeda, President George W. Bush invaded Afghanistan and Iraq.
On December 13, 2003, Hussein was captured without resistance by US troops, when he was in hiding 30 kilometers from his hometown, Tikrit, after Washington offered a reward of 25 million dollars for knowing any information that led to his arrest or death.
Bearded, much older, the former Iraqi dictator was hiding in a hut, where a hole had been dug in the ground, between 1.80 and 2.40 meters deep, disguised with bricks and sand.
Five years later, in early December 2008, during an interview with the American network ABC. News, former President Bush admitted that one of his administration’s biggest mistakes was believing that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
Today, US troops no longer carry out combat missions in Iraq, according to an agreement signed in July between the government of President Joe Biden and Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi; But the country continues to be mired in instability, with attacks and religious and political struggles.
Source From: Ambito
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