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Saddam chanted before execution
29/10/2007 23:00 - (SA)
Cairo - Former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein was neither brave nor cowardly in the last moments prior to his execution, according to the judge who supervised the ex-dictator's hanging.
Judge Mounir Haddad said in an interview with pan-Arab newspaper al-Sharq al-Awsat on Monday: "I cannot say Saddam was disparate or cowardly. Nor can I say he was brave and provoke public opinion."
Haddad, a Faili Kurd - an ethnic minority once persecuted by Saddam - revealed that the ousted dictator was on the day of his death holding a scorched copy of the Qu'ran, which he had always carried.
It was believed that Saddam had owned this book since an attack by a US aircraft on the restaurant he was sitting in.
"Saddam seemed to consider it a good luck charm from that time on," Haddad said. Before he died, Saddam requested that the Qu'ran was to be given to his lawyer Awad al-Bandr.
Haddad described the circumstances of Saddam's hanging.
Haddad said: "It was a very cold room. When sentencing was read to him, Saddam was chanting 'Allaho Akbar' (God is great), the way he used to do in his political speeches.
"He was also saying 'death to the Persians (Iranians), death to the Americans ... you are God's enemies."
After he had been uncuffed, Saddam clashed verbally with Iraqi National Security Advisor Muwaffak al-Rubaie and with police officers present.
Haddad recalled: "Saddam told al-Rubaie: 'You are afraid of me.' Al-Rubaie replied: 'Why should I be? You are the one who is going to be hanged."
Prior to the moment of his death, Haddad said, "I asked him if he had any will for his wife or children, but his last words were: 'long live my son' ... or 'long live'. Then he climbed the ladder to the execution rope.
"He didn't seem upset or hesitant."
Saddam refused his face being covered by a black mask before his hanging.
"The man did not care about death. Or maybe he did not imagine that he would die one day," Haddad noted.
Sapa-dpa
- SAPA
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