Iraq: Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) fighters have reportedly captured and executed the judge who sentenced Saddam Hussein to death, a Facebook post attributed to Ibrahim al-Douri, who was a top aide of the fallen Iraqi leader, said.
A Jordanian MP made a similar claim on his Facebook page. The Iraqi government hasn’t confirmed the killing, but issued no denial.
The International Business Times, reporting Judge Raouf Abdul Rahman’s capture, sourced it to a Facebook post by al-Douri. New York Times recently called al-Douri the force behind the dramatic ISIS offensive. He was deputy chairman of the Iraqi Command Council until the 2003 US-led invasion. In 2007, he was named leader of the banned Iraqi Ba’ath Party.
Quoting MP Khalil Attieh’s Facebook entry, Daily Mail, New York Post and some news websites said judge Rahman, who signed the death-by-hanging verdict against Saddam in 2006, was seized as he left Baghdad on June 16 and executed two days later. The Macedonian International News Agency too put out the news quoting Egyptian daily Al-Mesyroon. Attieh’s post claimed Rahman tried to escape Baghdad disguised in a dancer’s costume, but was nabbed.
Judge Rahman was a Kurd and condemned for ordering Saddam’s hanging. He was accused of being biased, for he comes from Halabja, scene of the 1988 poison attack, allegedly under the erstwhile Iraqi leader’s orders. Many of Rahman’s kin were said to be victims of that horrific attack. The judge himself was reportedly detained and tortured by Saddam’s security agents.
Rahman took over the Saddam trial in January 2006 after previous incumbent Razgar Amin was criticized for being lenient. A father of three, Rahman was a graduate of Baghdad University’s school of law.
The Daily Mail claimed that in March 2007, Rahman sought asylum in Britain. He had travelled to UK with his family on a tourist visa. He had apparently feared for his life. But there was no official confirmation of such an asylum appeal.