Report: Saddam Hussein has been executed
Baghdad (dpa) - Former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was executed early Saturday morning, CNN reported.
Saddam's death came four days after an Iraqi court upheld the death sentence handed down after he was convicted for the 1982 massacre in the Iraqi city of Dujail, according to reports based on Iraqi television reports.
The hanging took place more than three years after Saddam's regime was toppled by a US-led invasion and after a lengthy Iraq judicial process that resulted in his conviction and sentencing in November.
Since receiving the sentence, Saddam, 69, had made several appeals for his life, including issuing a statement urging Iraqi to rally against the execution.
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| A video grab from Russian NTV television channel shows the dead body of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein draped in a white shroud in Baghdad on Saturday 30 December 2006. EPA/NTV |
Saddam, had been in US custody since he was found by US troops hiding in a hole near Tikrit in December 2003 following months of living on the run.
While Saddam's death will bring closure to thousands of victims of his more than 20 years of brutal reign, there were also concerns the execution would result in an upsurge of violence.
The US military in Baghdad was on heightened alert in case of reprisals or street demonstrations. The execution took place as the Islamic world celebrates the Eid al-Adha, or the last day of 2006 that marks the end of the hajj, or month of pilgrimage.
Saddam's trial began in July 2004 but was frequently interrupted by what began as a bumpy judicial process and led to international criticism of the process. Had Saddam not been executed, he would have likely faced another trial for the gassing of thousands of Kurds in northern Iraq in 1988, his regime's most infamous crime. // © 2006
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| Iraqi Americans react to Saddam Hussein's impending execution in Dearborn Michigan on Friday 29 December 2006. EPA/JEFF KOWALSKY |
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