At 8 p.m. on December 13, 2003, former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was captured by U.S. forces in a burrow in a farmhouse near his hometown of Tikrit. After Saddam Hussein was captured, he did not resist. According to the U.S. military involved in the arrest, "There is no denying that this man is very attractive. He is 6 feet 1" tall and has a strong physique. Even if he is a prisoner of the order, his face is still a 'I am a big man' look, which seems very calm. ”
After Saddam Hussein was captured, the U.S. military sent him to a secret prison in Baghdad. Saddam's trial took nearly three years until the Iraqi High Court handed him his final verdict in December 2006. Saddam Hussein was sentenced to death by hanging, but he was not satisfied, and he strongly wanted to be executed.
Saddam Hussein said: "I suggest to you, if you have to make a death sentence, you must remember that Saddam Hussein is a soldier. In the present case, the verdict should have been a shooting, not an hang. In the early morning of December 30, 2006, Saddam Hussein was hanged at the age of 69. Saddam Hussein was calm before he was hanged, holding a copy of the Quran, and the execution lasted about 25 minutes.
However, we found an unexpected situation in which the then Transitional President of Iraq, Jalal Talabani, opposed the hanging of Saddam Hussein and refused to sign Saddam's death notice. "I am one of the lawyers around the world who have signed international petitions against the death penalty, and if an Iraqi court sentences Saddam Hussein to death, it will be really a problem for me," Talabani said. ”
Less well known is that Tarabani and Saddam Hussein were sworn enemies, and he was born in 1933 in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq. As one of the founders and important leaders of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, Tarabani led the Kurds against Saddam Hussein's regime for a long time during Saddam's reign, and he was regarded as a thorn in Saddam's eyes.
After the outbreak of the Iraq War in 2003, with the intervention of the United States, coupled with the political tacit agreement reached by all parties in Iraq. The division of power in the Iraqi government is such that the prime minister is a Shiite majority, the speaker of the National Assembly is a Sunni and the president is a Kurdish.
Seeing such a division of power, everyone should know why Tarabani opposed the execution of Saddam Hussein. Although the U.S. military overthrew the Sam regime, Saddam Hussein was too partial to the Sunnis during his tenure, and as a result, the Sunnis still had great respect for Saddam. The Kurds, on the other hand, dream of building a state, but it is impossible to build a predominantly Kurdish state in the political environment of the Middle East.
Tarabani was well aware of this, and he refused to sign Saddam Hussein's death notice. Talabani knew very well that once signed, the civil strife in Iraq would never cease. In doing so, Talabani proved to be extremely competitive, winning the support of the overwhelming majority of Iraqis and being considered a key figure capable of balancing The various political factions and contradictions in Iraq. However, Tarabani refused to sign and failed to prevent Saddam Hussein from being hanged.