Fear, indifference, jubilation over death

BAGHDAD -- As he faced the gallows yesterday, Saddam Hussein told his lawyers that he was prepared to die and his supporters in Iraq would view him as a martyr. The former dictator "believes in his destiny," one of his lawyers said.

But Iraqi government officials who are close to the case described a very different Hussein, one who was extremely nervous yesterday evening when US officials reportedly handed him over.

"He is in a state of shock," said Mithal Alusi, a parliament member who sat in on the government's daylong meetings about Hussein's fate. "He came apart. He realized he couldn't escape this."

Badie Izzat Aref, a member of the defense team, said: "Saddam wants to be a martyr, not stay in jail. He wants to tease the enemy. He wants to follow his two sons [whom American forces killed in 2003] and sacrifice himself for the Iraqi people."

Added Khalil al Dulaimi, his chief lawyer throughout the trial from Amman, Jordan: "He is quiet and ready. He believes in his destiny."

Iraq braced for his execution, which many feared could spur more violence in the already volatile nation. But amid the anxiety, many said the dictator was getting what he deserved.

"I swear, I will pay all the money I have to see him executed," said Emad Jassim, a 41-year-old businessman from the Shi'ite holy city of Najaf, where Hussein, a Sunni, had ordered thousands of people attacked, tortured, and killed. "He killed three of my brothers, my father, two of my uncles, and sent my mother and sister to jail. God help the oppressed."

Although Iraqis were glued to their TV sets at the beginning of the trial, some had lost almost all interest by the end. They complained that the trial was merely a drawn-out soap opera, not a swift legal proceeding.

Others said the deaths of 148 people two decades ago seemed insignificant in today's Iraq, in which 100 people are killed a day nationwide on average. Indeed, nearly as many people have died in Iraq in the past two days in car bombings, shooting, and kidnappings.

World reaction to the execution was swift but mixed.

Human Rights Watch criticized the execution, calling Husseins trial "deeply flawed."

"Saddam Hussein was responsible for massive human rights violations, but that can't justify giving him the death penalty, which is a cruel and inhuman punishment," said Richard Dicker, director of Human Rights Watch's International Justice Program.

But the British foreign secretary, Margaret Beckett, said Hussein has been held to account for some of his crimes against the Iraqi people.

"I welcome the fact that Saddam Hussein has been tried by an Iraqi court for at least some of the appalling crimes he committed against the Iraqi people. He has now been held to account," she said in a statement.

Najeeb al-Nauimi, a member of Hussein's legal team, said US authorities maintained physical custody of Hussein until the execution to prevent him being humiliated publicly or his corpse being mutilated, as has happened to previous Iraqi leaders deposed by force. He said they didn't want anything to happen to further inflame Sunni Arabs.

"This is the end of an era in Iraq," Nauimi said from Doha, Qatar. "The Ba'ath regime ruled for 35 years. Saddam was vice president or president of Iraq during those years. For Iraqis, he will be very well remembered. Like a martyr, he died for the sake of his country."

Iraq's prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, had rejected calls that Hussein be spared, telling families of people killed during the dictator's rule that would be an insult to the victims.

"Our respect for human rights requires us to execute him, and there will be no review or delay in carrying out the sentence," Maliki's office quoted him as saying during a meeting with relatives before the hanging.

Material from Associated Press and Reuters was included in this report.