Free at last, says Uday's double

2003-07-26 16:11

Berlin - A former double of Saddam Hussein's elder son Uday said he was relieved at the news of his erstwhile boss's death and felt "free" at last" in an interview to be published in the German Sunday paper Welt am Sonntag.

"For the first time I feel really free," declared Latif Yahia, who was Uday's double for five years before fleeing to Manchester, in northern England, after the Gulf war in 1991.

He said that when he had heard that Uday and his brother Qusay had been killed in a raid by US troops in Mosul, "I called my wife to tell her to put champagne on ice to celebrate."

"As far as Qusay goes, I knew straightaway that he was dead because the body of his son Mustafa was also found in the villa in Mosul where they were hiding," 39-year-old Yahia said. To be persuaded that Uday was also dead, he had to wait for the publication of the photos in the press.

Coalition troops decided to publish the photos of the two bloody and battered bodies in a bid to convince Iraqis that the notorious pair were well and truly dead.

Before the fall of Saddam, Uday, 39, personally commanded the dreaded Fedayeen, the regime's elite militia, and had a reputation for being dangerous and cruel.

- AFX