LONDON: British Prime Minister Tony Blair's official spokesman said on Monday that the way in which Saddam Hussein's half-brother was executed was "wrong", after it emerged his head was severed during hanging.
Human rights groups criticised the punishment after the Iraqi government said "no violations" had occurred but confirmed that Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti's head was ripped from his body as he swung on the gallows.
Speaking to reporters Monday afternoon, Blair's spokesman restated Britain's opposition to the death penalty and again said it recognised Iraq's right as a sovereign government to make its own decision on capital punishment.
"However, we emphasised if the executions were to be carried out, they should be done so in a dignified way," he said.
"Now if, as it appears to have been the case, that it didn't happen, then that clearly was wrong. But the manner of death should neither obscure the crimes that these people committed against the Iraqi people, nor excuse the manner (of the execution) if indeed it did go wrong."
Al-Tikriti, Saddam's former intelligence chief and half-brother, and Awad Ahmed Bandar, the former head of the revolutionary court, were executed at dawn, the Iraqi government in Baghdad said on Monday.
Both were sentenced to hang on November 5 by a special court along with ousted president Saddam Hussein for their part in the killing of 148 Shiite Muslims in the 1980s.
Saddam's execution on December 30, before which he was taunted by Shiite guards, drew criticism worldwide for the way it was handled by the Iraqi authorities.
Blair was attacked for initially remaining silent over the hanging. But he also eventually branded the manner of the former dictator's execution as "completely wrong".
Britain lobbied "at the highest level" to spare Saddam's life the day before he faced the gallows, Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said in a letter made public last week.
London's reaction to the latest hangings Monday morning was initially more muted, with the Foreign Office and Blair's office refusing to criticise Iraq for carrying out the executions until the decapitation was confirmed later.
