The death penalty

World reaction to the
execution of Saddam Hussein

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Background:

Saddam Hussein, the former dictator of Iraq, was executed by hanging just before 6 AM local time on Saturday DEC-30 (10 PM Friday ET) . He had been responsible for the torture and deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi citizens.

At his first trial, he was found guilty of ordering the mass execution of 148 men and boys in the Kurdish village of Dujail located about 40 miles north of Baghdad in 1982. This was in response to an attack of his convoy by a small group of Kurds. It appears that this atrocity was chosen as the initial trial because of "the availability of documents and witnesses willing to testify." ₁

He has been also charged with other crimes:

	The genocide which exterminated thousands of Kurds during a poison gas attack on the Kurdish village of Halabja in 1988.
	The invasion of Kuwait in 1990.
	The suppression of a Shia uprising in the south of Iraq during 1991. ₁

These incidents were to be considered during a second trial. However, that trial will never take place.

The execution was held on the morning of Eid-Ul-Adha (a.k.a. Eid al Azha, the Feast of Sacrifice, or the Day of Sacrifice). This is a world-wide celebration that is observed after the Hajj -- the annual pilgrimage by Muslims to Makkah (Mecca) in Saudi Arabia. Eid Ul Adha commemorates the patriarch Abraham's willingness to conduct a ritual human sacrifice of his son Ishmael in response to an instruction from God. ₂The execution was a violation of Iraqi law which prohibits the death penalty being implemented on a religious holy day.

Executing him during the Feast of Sacrifice in Iraq is analogous to implementing an execution order on Christmas in a predominately Christian country.

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