Saddam Sentenced to Hang: Justice for Dujail Massacre

The Iraqi High Tribunal pronounced the words "death by hanging" on November 5, 2006, and Saddam Hussein, the former dictator who had ruled Iraq for 24 years through violence and fear, responded by shouting "God is great" and "Long live Iraq." The sentence, for the 1982 massacre of 148 Shiite Muslims in the town of Dujail, concluded a trial that had been plagued by assassinations of defense lawyers, allegations of political interference, and doubts about whether justice was even possible in a country consumed by sectarian war. The Dujail massacre had been triggered by a failed assassination attempt against Saddam during a presidential visit to the town in July 1982. In retaliation, security forces arrested hundreds of residents, including women and children. Many were tortured at intelligence headquarters in Baghdad. A revolutionary court sentenced 148 men and boys to death, and the regime bulldozed Dujail's orchards and farmland as collective punishment. The trial began in October 2005 before a panel of five Iraqi judges. Saddam, who had been captured by American forces hiding in a spider hole near Tikrit in December 2003, alternated between defiance and disruption, refusing to recognize the court's authority and ejecting himself from proceedings. Three defense lawyers were assassinated during the trial. The chief judge was replaced after complaints that he was too lenient. Saddam was executed by hanging on December 30, 2006, at a joint Iraqi-American military base in Baghdad. The execution itself became controversial when an unauthorized cell phone video showed guards taunting Saddam with chants praising Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr in his final moments. Rather than providing closure, the execution deepened sectarian divisions. Many Sunni Arabs viewed the trial and execution as Shiite revenge rather than impartial justice, reinforcing the communal grievances that continued to fuel the Iraqi insurgency for years afterward.