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Tuesday, January 15, 2013

THE HANGING OF BARZAN IBRAHIM AL-TIKRITI & AWAD HAMED AL-BANDAR (BOTH EXECUTED ON 15 JANUARY 2007)



            On this date (15 January 2007), Two Iraqi War criminals were executed by hanging, Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti and Awad Hamed al-Bandar. I will give information about them from Wikipedia. Their executions reminded me of the hangings of the Nazi War Criminals


Awad Hamed al-Bandar, left, former head of Iraq's Revolutionary Court; and Barzan Ibrahim, Saddam's half brother and former intelligence chief.




Personal details
Born
February 17, 1951
Tikrit, Iraq
Died
January 15, 2007 (aged 55)
Baghdad, Iraq
Political party
Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party

Barzan Ibrahim al-Hasan al-Tikriti (February 17, 1951 – January 15, 2007) (also known as Barazan Ibrahim al-Tikriti, Barasan Ibrahem Alhassen, and Barzan Hassan) (Arabic: برزان إبراهيم الحسن التكريتي‎; Barzān Ibrāhīm al-Ḥasan at-Tikrītī) was one of three half-brothers of Saddam Hussein, and a leader of the Mukhabarat, the Iraqi intelligence service. Despite falling out of favour with Saddam at one time, he was believed to have been a close presidential adviser at the time of his capture. On January 15, 2007, he was hanged for crimes against humanity. The rope decapitated him because wrong measurements were used in conjunction with how far he was dropped from the platform.

Family

  • Mohamed Barzan Ibrahim Hasan al-Tikriti (son)
  • Saja Barzan Ibrahim Hasan al-Tikriti (daughter)
  • Ali Barzan Ibrahim Hasan al-Tikriti (son)
  • Noor Barzan Ibrahim Hasan al-Tikriti (daughter)
  • Khawla Barzan Ibrahim Hasan al-Tikriti (daughter)
  • Thoraya Barzan Ibrahim Hasan al-Tikriti (daughter)
High position in Iraqi government

Al-Tikriti was a leading figure in the Mukhabarat, the intelligence service that later turned to another agency performing the duty of Secret Police, from the 1970s, later taking over as director. During his time in the secret police, al-Tikriti played a key role in the Iraqi regime's execution of opponents at home and assassinations abroad. He was also known for his ruthlessness and brutality in purging the Iraqi military of anyone seen as disloyal.

Al-Tikriti became Iraq's representative to the United Nations in Geneva—including the UN Human Rights Committee—in 1989. He was in Geneva for almost a decade, during which he is believed to have managed clandestine accounts for the Iraqi president's overseas fortune. This task was then taken over by a network of foreign brokers, since Hussein had decided that no one in Iraq could be trusted with this task.

U.S. officials characterized al-Tikriti as a member of what they called "Saddam's Dirty Dozen", responsible for torture and mass murder in Iraq. U.S. forces captured him on April 17, 2003. Al-Tikriti was the five of clubs in the most-wanted Iraqi playing cards.

Post-invasion

Al-Tikriti was among the leadership figures who U.S. forces targeted during the Iraq War. In April 2003, warplanes dropped six satellite-guided bombs on a building in the Iraqi city of Ramadi, west of Baghdad, where he was thought to be. In late summer 2003, al-Tikriti was confirmed captured alive by U.S. Army Special Forces with a large entourage of bodyguards in Baghdad. He was turned over to Iraq’s Interim Government on June 30, 2004, and was arraigned on July 1, 2004.


Saddam Hussein's half-brother Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti dresses in underwear to protest at the authority of the court charging him over a 1982 massacre in Iraq.
Trial and courtroom charges

Al-Tikriti's trial started on October 19, 2005. He was a defendant in the Iraq Special Tribunal's Al-Dujail trial, and Abd al-Semd al-Husseini was his defence counsel. In a first stage, Al-Tikriti stood trial before a five-judge panel for the Dujail Massacre. He was charged for crimes against humanity, simultaneously with seven other former high officials (Taha Yassin Ramadan, Saddam Hussein, Awad Hamed al-Bandar, Abdullah Kadhem Roweed Al-Musheikhi, Ali Daeem Ali, Mohammed Azawi Ali and Mizher Abdullah Roweed Al-Musheikhi). They were said to have ordered and overseen the killings, in July 1982, of more than 140 Shiite men from Dujail, a village 35 miles north of Baghdad. The men were allegedly killed in retribution after a July 8, 1982 attack on the presidential motorcade as it passed through the village. It was alleged that, apart from the killings, hundreds of women and children from the town were jailed for years in desert internment camps, and that the date palm groves, which sustained the local economy and were the families' livelihood, were destroyed.

During the first court session on October 19, 2005, al-Tikriti pleaded not guilty. During his trial, he was known for his angry outbursts in court and was ejected on several occasions.

In the weeks following the first audience, serious security concerns for the defense team of Hussein and the other accused became apparent. On October 21, 2005, 36 hours after the first hearing, a group of unidentified armed men dragged one of the attorneys from his office in east Baghdad and shot him dead. A few days later, a second lawyer was killed in a drive-by shooting, and a third, injured in that attack, subsequently fled Iraq for sanctuary in Qatar.

As a result, calls for the trial to be held abroad were heard. The defense lawyers, supported by the Iraqi Bar Association, imposed a boycott on the trial until their security concerns were met with specific measures. A few days before the trial was to resume, the defense team announced that it had accepted offers of protection from Iraqi and U.S. officials and would appear in court on November 28, 2005. The agreement is said to have included the same level of protection that is offered to the Iraqi judges and prosecutors, with measures such as armored cars and teams of bodyguards.

After a short court session on November 28, 2005, during which some testimony regarding the killings in Dujail was presented, Judge Rizgar Mohammed Amin ordered a one-week adjournment until December 5, to grant the defence teams time to find new counsel.

On March 12, 2006, the prosecutor announced that if Hussein and his seven co-defendants were sentenced to death in the Dujail case, the sentence would be carried out as soon as possible. Thus, the other cases for which they were indicted would not be heard in court. On June 19, 2006, the prosecutor asked the court, in his closing arguments, that the death penalty be imposed upon al-Tikriti, Hussein and Ramadan.

On November 5, 2006, al-Tikriti was sentenced to death by hanging.

Appeals

A death sentence or life imprisonment generates an automatic appeal. On December 3, 2006, the defence team lodged an appeal against the verdicts for al-Tikriti, Hussein and al-Bander, who had been sentenced to death. On December 26, 2006, the appeals chamber confirmed the verdict and the death sentence against al-Tikriti.

In November 2006, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani appealed for al-Tikriti to be moved to medical facilities to receive treatment for his spinal cancer. Al-Tikriti originally made an appeal from his cell to U.S. President George W. Bush and to Talabani for treatment, referring to the latter as an "old friend".

Execution

On January 15, 2007, the death sentence was carried out. Al-Tikriti, along with co-defendants Hussein and the former Chief Justice of the Iraqi Revolutionary Court al-Bandar, was sentenced to death by hanging. He was originally scheduled to hang on December 30 with Hussein (as he and al-Bandar wished) but due to the Eid, lack of time, and lack of logistics (there was no helicopter to deliver them), as well as international pressure, the hangings were postponed to January 15. Al-Tikriti's sentence was carried out at 03:00 local time (00:00 UTC) on January 15, 2007. His death was confirmed at 3:05/00:05 UTC. Barzan was decapitated by the long drop. Al-Tikriti's and al-Bandar's counsel was not allowed to attend, as was the case with Hussein's hanging.

Awad Hamad al-Bandar (Arabic: عواد حمد بندر السعدون‎; aka: Awad Hamad Bandar Alsa'doon) (January 2, 1945 - January 15, 2007) was an Iraqi chief judge under Saddam Hussein's presidency. He was the head of the Revolutionary Court which issued death sentences against 143 Dujail residents, in the aftermath of the failed assassination attempt on the president on July 8, 1982 (a year before the U.S. assumed diplomatic ties with Hussein to help thwart their common enemy: Iran). At the Al-Dujail trial the Iraqi Special Tribunal tried al-Bandar for crimes against humanity for issuing the death sentences. On November 5, 2006, al-Bandar was sentenced to death by hanging along with co-defendants Hussein and Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti, who was beheaded as a result of the hanging.

He was a member of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party.

Execution

The sentence was widely expected to be carried out on December 30, 2006, shortly before 6:00 AM Iraqi local time. Hussein was hanged at 6:05 AM Iraqi local time (0305 UTC). Initially, al-Tikriti and al-Bandar were also believed to have been hanged with him. A few hours later, official statements clarified that the executions of al-Bandar and his remaining co-defendant had been postponed to give special significance to the day that Hussein was executed. The United States claimed that it did not have helicopters available to fly the remaining two to the place of execution; the Iraqi government later said that they did not have time.

On January 3, 2007, an Iraqi government official told the Associated Press that preparations were under way to hang Saddam's half-brother al-Tikriti, a former intelligence chief, and al-Bandar, the former chief justice of the Revolutionary Court on Thursday January 4, 2007. Both were hanged before dawn on January 15, 2007. They were pronounced dead at 3:05 AM (0005 UTC). Al-Bandar's legal counsel was not allowed to attend. Hussein and his cousin al-Tikriti were also not allowed to have their lawyer present when they were executed.

Al-Bandar's defence counsel comprised
  • Bader Awad Hamed Alsa’doon (Lead)
  • Saadoun Sughaiyer al-Janabi (also: Sa’doon al-Janabi) - assassinated on 20 October 2005.
Please see the link:  


Saddam aides hanged, but not as planned
Half-brother's head is severed; Sunnis claim he was 'mutilated'

msnbc.com news services
updated 1/15/2007 4:46:32 PM ET
Saddam Hussein’s half brother and the former chief of Iraq’s Revolutionary Court were both hanged before dawn Monday, but the half-brother's head was severed by the noose — leading to outrage from Sunnis who claim the body was mutilated. 

Barzan Ibrahim, Saddam’s half brother and former intelligence chief, and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, once head of Iraq’s Revolutionary Court, had been found guilty along with Saddam in the killing of 148 Shiite Muslims after a 1982 assassination attempt on the former leader in the town of Dujail north of Baghdad.

Government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh confirmed the executions, saying those attending the hangings included a prosecutor, a judge and a physician.

He also said Ibrahim’s head was severed from his body during his hanging.

“In a rare incident, the head of the accused Barzan Ibrahim al-Hassan was separated from his body during the execution,” al-Dabbagh told reporters.

Hangmen gauge the length of rope needed to snap the neck of the condemned but not to create enough force to sever the head. 

Saleem al-Jibouri, a senior Sunni Arab lawmaker, said Ibrahim's body might have been weakened by the cancer he was suffering. 

Trembling with fear
Iraqi government officials later showed journalists silent video of the executions. The two men trembled with fear and stood side-by-side, wearing red prison jumpsuits. As they reached the gallows, black hoods were put on their heads and five masked men surrounded them. 

There was no repeat of the sectarian taunting that marred Saddam’s execution when it was revealed by illicit mobile phone video footage. 

After the trap doors opened, al-Bandar could be seen dangling from the rope. Ibrahim’s body was lying on the floor, chest down, his still-hooded severed head resting several yards away. 

Al-Dabbagh said the gallows were built to international standards and in accordance with human rights organizations.

But Param-Preet Singh, counsel for the international justice program at Human Rights Watch, said she was not aware of any internationally recognized standards for hanging. 

Al-Dabbagh stressed that all laws and rules were respected during the proceedings, choosing his words carefully after Saddam’s execution became an unruly scene that brought worldwide criticism of the Iraqi government. Video of Saddam's execution, recorded on a cell phone camera, showed the former dictator being taunted on the gallows. 

“Those present signed documents pledging not to violate the rules or otherwise face legal penalties. All the people present abided by the government’s rule and there were no violations,” he said, adding the hangings occurred at 3 a.m. “No one shouted slogans or said anything that would taint the execution. None of those charged were insulted.” 

“We will not release the video, but we want to show the truth,” he added. “The Iraqi government acted in a neutral way.” 

Sunnis upset
The announcement drew outrage from some in the Sunni community while majority Shiites who were heavily persecuted under Saddam’s regime expressed joy. 

Ibrahim’s son-in-law, Azzam Saleh Abdullah, said “we heard the news from the media. We were supposed to be informed a day earlier, but it seems that this government does not know the rules.” 

He said it reflected the hatred felt by the Shiite-led government. “They still want more Iraqi bloodshed. To hell with this democracy,” he said. 

Khalaf al-Olayan, a leader of the main Sunni bloc in parliament, demanded to see any video taken during the execution.  

"It is impossible for a person to be decapitated during a hanging,” he told Al-Jazeera television. “This shows that they (the government) have mutilated the body and this is a violation of the law.” 

“We want to see the video that was taken during the execution of the two men in order for them (government) to prove what they are saying,” he added. 

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, along with the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour, had called on the Iraqi government to refrain from executing Ibrahim and al-Bandar. 

The bodies were later taken to Saddam’s hometown of Ouja, near Tikrit, 80 miles north of Baghdad, for burial, and residents opened fire into the air intensively, according to Iraqi tradition. Thousands from the Sunni-dominated area gathered as the bodies were being prepared for burial. 

Police in Ouja said two graves had been opened near Saddam’s grave in a building he built in the 1990s as a community center for religious occasions. 

Same execution chamber
The executions occurred in the same Saddam-era military intelligence headquarters building in north Baghdad where the former leader was hanged two days before the end of 2006, according to an Iraqi general, who would not allow use of his name because he was not authorized to release the information. The building is located in the Shiite neighborhood of Kazimiyah.

The two men were to have been hanged along with Saddam on Dec. 30, but Iraqi authorities decided to execute Saddam alone on what National Security adviser Mowaffak al-Rubaie called a “special day.”

Last week, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani urged the government to delay the executions.

“In my opinion we should wait,” Talabani said Wednesday at a news conference with U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad. “We should examine the situation,” he said without elaborating.

Debating delay
On Tuesday, al-Maliki said that Khalilzad asked him to delay Saddam’s execution for 10 days to two weeks, but added that Iraqi officials rejected the demand.

A lawyer for the two men told The Associated Press recently that they were taken from their cells and told they were going to be hanged on the same day Saddam was executed.

Issam Ghazawi, a member of Saddam’s defense team for the past two years, said he met individually with Ibrahim and al-Bandar recently, and that Ibrahim told him they were escorted from their cells and told they were also going to be executed.

“The Americans took me and al-Bandar from our cells on the same day of Saddam’s execution to an office inside the prison at 1 a.m. They asked us to collect our belongings because they intend to execute us at dawn,” Ibrahim reportedly said.

He said the two men were also told to write their wills.

'Psychological pain'
Al-Bandar and Ibrahim were taken back to their prison cells nearly nine hours later, according to Ghazawi.

“Their execution should be commuted under such circumstances because of the psychological pain they endured as they waited to hang,” he said.

Ghazawi quoted Al-Bandar as saying he “wished to have been executed with President Saddam.” Ibrahim, the lawyer said, “was in the worst condition. He kept crying over the death of his brother and said it was a great loss for the family and the Arab world.”

After Saddam’s execution but before Ibrahim and al-Bandar’s, Human Rights Watch released a report calling the speedy trial and subsequent hanging of Saddam proof of the new Iraqi government’s disregard for human rights.

“The tribunal repeatedly showed its disregard for the fundamental due process rights of all of the defendants,” said Richard Dicker, director of Human Rights Watch’s International Justice Program.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.




Relatives and supporters pay respect to the Iraqi flag-draped coffins of Saddam Hussein 's half-brother Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti (L) and former judge Awad Hamed al-Bander during a funeral in Awja, near Tikrit in northern Iraq , 175km (110 miles) north of Baghdad, Jan. 15, 2007. Saddam's two aides were buried within hours of their hanging on Monday in a garden outside the hall which has become a shrine to the former president since he was interred there two weeks ago.

Supporters carry the coffin of Saddam Hussein 's half-brother Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti during a funeral in Awja, near Tikrit in northern Iraq, Jan. 15, 2007.


Saddam's two aides were buried within hours of their hanging on Monday in a garden outside the hall which has become a shrine to the former president since he was interred there two weeks ago.


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