Saddam's half brother loses head in botched execution

The executions follow worldwide criticism of the former dictator's chaotic death just over two weeks ago.

Awad Hamed al-Bandar, the former head of Iraq's Revolutionary Court, was also put to death this morning.

The two men had been found guilty along with Saddam in the killing of 148 Shia Muslims in 1982.

Officials were quick to stress that "no violations" were reported during the executions, which were carried out in front of a prosecutor, a judge and a physician.

However, government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said al-Tikriti, also known as al-Hassan, the former head of Iraq's feared secret police, had been decapitated.

"In a rare incident the head of the accused Barzan Ibrahim al-Hassan was separated from his body during the execution," Mr al-Dabbagh said.

Another government official described the decapitation as "normal", although rare, and as "an act of God".

The incident is set to spark further

condemnation of the way the Iraqi government has handled the executions.

Historically, decapitations during hangings have occurred when too long a rope has been used and the prisoner's weight has been underestimated.

No footage has been released from today's executions, although it is understood they were filmed.

Iraqi prosecutor Munqith al-Faroon said: "They [the government] called us before dawn and told us to send someone. I sent a judge to witness the execution and it happened."

Two aides to prime minister Nouri Maliki confirmed that the executions had taken place, at around 6am local time.

A news conference was expected later this morning, where the hangings were expected to be officially announced.

The executions reportedly occurred in the same military intelligence headquarters building in north Baghdad where the former dictator was hanged on December 30.

Al-Tikriti, 14 years Saddam's junior, was head of the feared Mukhabarat intelligence service from 1979 to 1983. Witnesses in the trial said he personally oversaw torture, eating grapes as he watched on one occasion, and had a meat grinder for human flesh at his interrogation facility.

He was Iraq's ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva from 1988 to 1997, where he is remembered as an elegantly-suited man dubbed "Saddam's banker in the West".

Al-Bander, aged around 61, was a former chief judge in Saddam's Revolutionary Court, which was accused of running show trials that often led to summary executions.

He was the judge in charge of trying many of the 148 Shia men killed after a failed assassination bid on Saddam in 1982.

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

Defence lawyer Issam Ghazawi said Al-Hassan told him: "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 1am. They asked us to collect our belongings because they intend to execute us at dawn."

Mr Ghazawi said the two men were also told to write their wills but then taken back to their prison cells nearly nine hours later.

He added that al-Bandar had said he "wished to have been executed with President Saddam" and reported that al-Hassan, "kept crying over the death of his brother and said it was a great loss for the family and the Arab world".

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

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

After Saddam's execution, 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 bodies of the two men executed today are expected to be handed over to their families for burial within a few days.

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Iraq
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