Guards who filmed execution identified: UN rapporteur sees violation of human rights
BAGHDAD, Jan 4: Investigators have identified two guards who illicitly filmed Saddam Hussein's execution, an official said on Thursday as the Iraqi government sought to dampen growing outrage from Sunnis over the unruly hanging.
The mobile phone video of Shia officials taunting Saddam on the gallows has inflamed sectarian passions in a country on the brink of civil war.
“Two justice ministry guards have been arrested. Other guards have identified them as having filmed the hanging,” Prime Minister Nuri al Maliki's aide Sami al Askari said.
Interior Minister Jawad al Bolani told a news conference: “The investigation is ongoing and we have identified those who flouted the rules ... Even for a dictator like Saddam, the lawmust be obeyed.”
A prosecutor who attended the execution said he had seen two senior officials filming the hanging, prompting suggestions among some Iraqis that the guards might be used as scapegoats.
The images, which show observers yelling `Go to hell’ and chanting the name of radical Shia leader Moqtada Sadr before Saddam falls through the trap, have sparked angry demonstrations by Sunnis.
Philip Alston, the United Nations special rapporteur on extra-judicial, summary or arbitrary executions, said the `humiliating’ way in which Saddam was put to death was a clear violation of international human rights law.
The US military, which kept physical custody of Saddam for three years, said it had played no role in the execution and would have done things `differently’.
On Thursday White House spokesman Tony Fratto responded to questions about the forthcoming executions of two other men convicted with Saddam of crimes against humanity by saying: “We expect Iraqi officials to handle their business with appropriate care.”
Barzan al Tikriti, one of Saddam's half-brothers and his former intelligence chief, and Awad al-Bander, a former judge, were found guilty with Saddam two months ago over the killings of 148 men from the town of Dujail in the 1980s. Bander presided over the court that ordered the men's deaths.
Officials have said they will take more precautions for the executions of Barzan and Bander, including checking witnesses for cameras and mobile phones.
Thousands of Sunni Arabs have marched in the Sunni heartland to vent anger at the execution of Saddam Hussein, and mourners have flocked to his grave in his home village of Awja.
On Thursday hundreds of Shias marched in Basra to support the execution in a demonstration organised by the local office of Mr Maliki's Dawa party.
Two bombs exploded near a petrol station in Baghdad's western Mansour district, killing 13 people and wounding 22, police said. The US military said there had been a lull in violence over the Eidul Azha holiday, but that US forces were still braced for a possible backlash.—Reuters
