Iraq orders probe of Hussein execution

BAGHDAD -- As thousands of Saddam Hussein's supporters protested in Sunni Arab enclaves across Iraq, the Shi'ite-led government said it had launched an investigation into the chaotic scene at his execution, captured on video, which has deepened the nation's sectarian rift and sparked condemnation around the world.

Iraqi officials said a committee from the Interior Ministry would probably question everyone, including senior Iraqi officials, who was present at the hanging, where witnesses mocked and jeered the ousted president as he stood at the gallows. Hours later, grainy video of the event, taken with a cellphone camera, was broadcast around the world, bringing more pressure on Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to take action.

The video triggered outrage, in Iraq and abroad, at Hussein's undignified and disorderly end. Iraq's Sunnis declared the execution an act of Shi'ite revenge. The Vatican, in its official newspaper, called the images from the hanging "a spectacle" that violated human rights and could harm Iraq's process of reconciliation. The Italian government, which like all members of the European Union opposes the death penalty, said after the appearance of the video that it would push at the United Nations for a worldwide moratorium on capital punishment.

US officials have declined to comment publicly, but have privately expressed concern at the hastiness of the execution, which came just four days after an appeals court upheld Hussein's death sentence.

The video was the latest example of how amateurs using technology are exposing abuses and holding the powerful to account. The investigation, officials said, would focus not only on who hurled the taunts, but also on how the video was leaked, damaging the government's credibility. Maliki's political adviser, Sadiq al-Rikabi, said the prime minister was "disappointed about that film."

"He took the subject very seriously," Rikabi said. "The prime minister tried his best to implement the execution very respectfully."

In the video, one person yells "Go to hell" at Hussein while another voice is heard chanting "Moqtada, Moqtada, Moqtada," referring to Moqtada al-Sadr, the radical Shi'ite cleric whose father and two brothers were assassinated by Hussein's regime. The taunts provoked Hussein to hurl insults. Later, images of the swinging body were on dozens of websites. On the video-sharing site Youtube.com, a search using the terms "Saddam Hussein hanging" generated 1,559 results as of last night.

The probe could implicate senior Iraqi officials. Munqith al-Faroun, the deputy prosecutor in Hussein's trial, said in a telephone interview yesterday that he saw two official observers using their cellphones to record Hussein's last moments. The two men, he said, were "recording through their mobiles openly." He said he did not recognize them, but could do so if he saw them again.

Maliki aides said they did not think any officials were behind the video. "I think [it was] one of the guards, but let us leave everything to the inquiry," Rikabi said.