Saddam Hussein Executed Four Days After Appeals Court Upholds Death Sentence

On December 30, 2006, Iraqi officials executed former president Saddam Hussein, 69, by hanging for his role in the killings of 148 men and boys in the northern town of Dujail. Hussein was hanged less than two months after the establishment of the Iraqi High Tribunal (HIT), and only five days after an Iraqi appellate court upheld his death sentence. On December 26, 2006, the appellate court had ruled that Hussein should be hanged within 30 days. Since his capture by U.S. troops in December 2003, Hussein had legally been in Iraqi custody but remained under U.S. watch at a military prison ... [more]