Saddam’s court chief, half brother hanged

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Saddam Hussein’s half brother and the former head of Iraq’s Revolutionary Court were both hanged before dawn today, Prosecutor Munqith al-Faroon said, two weeks and two days after the former Iraqi dictator was executed in a chaotic scene that has drawn worldwide criticism.

Barzan Ibrahim, Saddam’s half brother and former intelligence chief, and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, 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.

“They (the government) called us before dawn and told us to send someone. I sent a judge to witness the execution and it happened,” al-Faroon said.

Two aides to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki confirmed that the executions had taken place. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the government had not yet released the information.

Government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh was to hold a news conference later today and was expected to announce the hangings.

The executions reportedly occurred in the same military intelligence headquarters building in north Baghdad where the former leader was hanged, according to an Iraqi general, who would not allow use of his name because he was not authorized to release the information.

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.”

Saddam’s execution became an unruly scene that brought worldwide criticism of the Iraqi government. Video of the execution, recorded on a cell phone camera, showed the former dictator being taunted on the gallows.

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said that U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay 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.