After the Execution

The video of Saddam Hussein’s hanging, shot with the ubiquitous cellphone, showing him in his last moments with the rope already around his neck, being reproached contemptuously and assailed with taunts, tells the truth about the manner in which the execution was carried out. What a cruel and degrading treatment of a person facing imminent execution, whose right to life had already been violated in an unfair trial?

Saddam Hussein was a dictator who stood accused of committing innumerable crimes during the 24 years he ruled Iraq. From victimisation of minorities (the kurds) and killing thousands of political dissidents to taking his country into a murderous war with Iran – with the support of his close ally of the times, the US, in many of these endeavours – the former president of Iraq truly deserved to be put on trial before an international tribunal for crimes against humanity. But what he got instead was trial in a kangaroo court organised by puppets of the US and death by what can only be described as a public lynching.