Execution of Saddam Hussein

Execution of Saddam Hussein
Part of the Iraq War
	Saddam Hussein at his trial, July 2004
Date	30 December 2006
Venue	Camp Justice, Kadhimiya, Baghdad, Iraq

The execution of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein took place on 30 December 2006. Saddam was sentenced to death by hanging, after being convicted of crimes against humanity by the Iraqi Special Tribunal for the Dujail massacre—the killing of 148 Iraqi Shi'ites in the town of Dujail—in 1982, in retaliation for an assassination attempt against him.^[1]

The Iraqi government released an official video of his execution, showing him being led to the gallows, and ending after the hangman's noose was placed over his head. International public controversy arose when a mobile phone recording of the hanging showed him surrounded by a contingent of his countrymen who jeered him in Arabic and praised the Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, and his subsequent fall through the trap door of the gallows.

Saddam's body was returned to his birthplace of Al-Awja, near Tikrit, on 31 December and was buried near the graves of other family members.

^ "Saddam buried in village of his birth". Associated Press. 31 December 2006. Retrieved 31 December 2006.

[ap_burial-1] "Saddam buried in village of his birth". Associated Press. 31 December 2006. Retrieved 31 December 2006.

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