The execution of Saddam Hussein took place on Saturday December 30, 2006. Saddam was sentenced to death by hanging, after being found guilty and convicted of crimes against humanity by the Iraqi Special Tribunal for the murder of 148 Iraqi Shi'ite in the town of Dujail in 1982, in retaliation for an assassination attempt against him.
Saddam Hussein was President of Iraq from July 16, 1979 until April 9, 2003, when he was deposed during the 2003 invasion by a U.S.-led allied coalition. After the capture of Saddam in ad-Dawr, near his hometown Tikrit, he was incarcerated at Camp Cropper. On Sunday November 5, 2006, he was sentenced to death by hanging.
On Sunday December 31, 2006, he was taken to the prison to be executed. The Iraqi government released an official videotape of his execution, showing him being led to the gallows, and ending after his head was in the hangman's noose. International public controversy arose when an unauthorized mobile phone recording of the hanging showed him falling through the trap door of the gallows. The atmosphere of the execution drew criticism around the world from nations that both oppose and support capital punishment. On Sunday December 31, 2006, Saddam Hussein's body was returned to his birthplace of Al-Awja, near Tikrit, and was buried near the graves of other family members. Saddam's body was never shown.
Read more about Execution Of Saddam Hussein: Prior To Execution, Burial, Media Coverage, Mobile Phone Video, Reaction, Legality, Reactions in Media, Perception of The Iraq Government
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“There’s no telling what might have happened to our defense budget if Saddam Hussein hadn’t invaded Kuwait that August and set everyone gearing up for World War II½. Can we count on Saddam Hussein to come along every year and resolve our defense-policy debates? Given the history of the Middle East, it’s possible.”
—P.J. (Patrick Jake)
“It is clear that in a monarchy, where he who commands the exceution of the laws generally thinks himself above them, there is less need of virtue than in a popular government, where the person entrusted with the execution of the laws is sensible of his being subject to their direction.”
—Charles Louis de Secondat Montesquieu (1689–1755)
“It is clear that in a monarchy, where he who commands the exceution of the laws generally thinks himself above them, there is less need of virtue than in a popular government, where the person entrusted with the execution of the laws is sensible of his being subject to their direction.”
—Charles Louis de Secondat Montesquieu (1689–1755)
“There’s no telling what might have happened to our defense budget if Saddam Hussein hadn’t invaded Kuwait that August and set everyone gearing up for World War II½. Can we count on Saddam Hussein to come along every year and resolve our defense-policy debates? Given the history of the Middle East, it’s possible.”
—P.J. (Patrick Jake)
“The great, the jewel and the mother of battles has begun.”
—Saddam Hussein (b. 1937)