Iraq denies Saddam humiliated before execution

BAGHDAD: A senior Iraqi official who attended Saddam Hussein's execution rejected accusations on Thursday that the ousted dictator was humiliated before his death but admitted there had been "some wrongdoing".   

"Where was the humiliation? The shouting of the crowd?" Iraq's National Security Advisor Mowaffaq al-Rubaie asked during an interview on CNN.   

A grisly unofficial video released after the former Iraqi leader was hanged showed one of the members of the execution party shouting the name of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, a bitter opponent of Saddam.   

The two-and-half minute film shot on a mobile telephone camera has spread like wildfire on the Internet and triggered angry outbursts within the Sunni Arab community of Iraq and from international leaders.   

One of those present at the execution could be heard shouting "Moqtada! Moqtada! Moqtada!" at a sneering Saddam, inspiring some observers to compare the execution to a sectarian lynching.   

"Basically they were doing their congregational prayers and supplications, and they mentioned at the end of their supplication the name of Moqtada," Rubaie said.   

"And Saddam replied to them. I can't see where is the humiliation, to be quite honest. Moqtada, Moqtada, Moqtada is not a dirty word, not an obscene word, they were not cursing," he said.   

"I know it is not legal -- it is not right and it's wrong -- but this is their belief," said Rubaie.   

He also explained why the executioners and Iraqi officials danced around Saddam's body after the hanging.   

"This is the tradition of the Iraqis -- when they do something they dance around the body and they express their feelings," he said.    

"What is wrong with that? If that upsets the feelings of some of the Arab nations and Arab rulers, I think: 'The best of luck to them'."   

"To the best of my knowledge and belief after I left the scene I was proud of what had happened and it was played by the book, but when the (mobile phone) video was released I saw some wrongdoing and this has to be addressed," he said.   

Rubaie also defended the release of official footage of the minutes before the execution, which was broadcast without sound.   

"We wanted to show the outside world the execution had happened because this part of the world is full of conspiracy theories," he explained.   

He added that the full video with sound would be released to those investigating the events during the execution.   

Rubaie said the unofficial video was probably taken by one of the guards at the execution and denied news reports that he was himself carrying a mobile phone.   

Saddam was hanged on December 30 at a former torture centre in Baghdad and buried a day later in his home village of Awja in northern Iraq.