Table of Contents
Execution of Saddam Hussein
Category: History & Politics Key figures: Saddam Hussein (former President of Iraq); Nouri al-Maliki (Prime Minister of Iraq); the Iraqi Special Tribunal
Summary
Saddam Hussein, the former President of Iraq, was executed by hanging on December 30, 2006, at approximately 6:00 a.m. local time, and was confirmed dead a few minutes later. The execution was carried out at “Camp Justice,” a joint Iraqi-U.S. military base in the Kadhimiya district of northeastern Baghdad. Saddam, who had been captured by U.S. forces in December 2003, had ruled Iraq from 1979 until he was overthrown during the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.
The execution followed Saddam’s conviction by the Iraqi Special Tribunal for crimes against humanity in connection with the Dujail massacre—the killing of 148 Shia residents of the town of Dujail in 1982, carried out in retaliation for a failed assassination attempt against him. That trial had opened in October 2005. On November 5, 2006, the tribunal sentenced Saddam to death by hanging, and on December 26, 2006, an appeals court upheld the sentence, ordering that it be carried out within 30 days. He was hanged alone; two co-defendants, Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, were executed about two weeks later in January 2007.
The execution was timed to the first day of Eid al-Adha, a major Islamic holiday, which itself drew criticism. Although an official recording was made, an unauthorized video filmed on a mobile phone was leaked and circulated widely; it captured the moments before the drop, including witnesses taunting Saddam at the gallows with sectarian chants. The Iraqi government, led by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, subsequently arrested a guard suspected of leaking the footage.
Significance
The execution closed a chapter that had begun with the 2003 invasion of Iraq, ending the life of one of the Middle East’s most consequential and divisive twentieth-century rulers. Coming amid intensifying sectarian violence in Iraq, it was received very differently across the country and the region, welcomed by many Shia and Kurdish Iraqis who had suffered under his rule and condemned by some Sunnis and others who viewed the manner of the proceedings as victor’s justice.
The trial and execution generated wide international debate over the fairness of the process and the use of capital punishment. Human rights organizations including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International criticized procedural flaws in the tribunal, and the leaked, taunting footage drew rebukes even from allies; U.S. President George W. Bush remarked that he wished the execution had been conducted in a more dignified manner. The event remains a defining and contested episode of the post-2003 Iraq War period.
Sources
Related
- North Korea’s First Nuclear Test — the year’s other defining History & Politics event, a fellow flashpoint in 2006 international security.
- See the full Timeline of 2006 and master Index for concurrent events.