New Delhi: The video footage of Saddam Hussein’s hanging, which hit the worldwide web within hours of the surprise execution of the Iraqi dictator, has sparked off a huge controversy in Iraq with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki ordering a probe to find out who filmed the event ‘in secret’.
The video film, apparently shot by a cellphone camera, showed the final few minutes of Saddam’s life from his arrival at the death chamber till the moment the trapdoor of the gallows was released.
The video also showed Saddam being taunted by the Shia witnesses and executioners, including one who shouted the name of a radical Shia cleric.
The official government video of the execution, which was released in Baghdad and also on the official television channel, suggested that the former tyrant went meekly to his death.
But the full truth of what happened in the execution chamber before dawn on Saturday emerged in the secretly-captured footage, which showed Saddam trading insults with officials till the end.
This video footage is not only more graphic than the brief clip released on the state television, it also had images precisely what the Iraqis, Americans and British hoped to avoid with the execution and turn Saddam into a martyr.
Even Iraq’s national security adviser Mowaffak al-Rubaie was drawn into the exchanges.
The two-and-a-half minute video spread like wildfire on the Internet and on mobile phone messages since Saturday’s hanging, posing a huge public relations disaster for the US-backed Iraqi government.
The Iraqi Government has now launched an inquiry to find out who secretly filmed the execution and distributed the footage.
“An investigation has been launched to find out who cried out (Moqtada, Moqtada) during the execution and who filmed it and put it out there,” news agencies quoted said a senior Shia official close to Prime Minister Maliki’s office as saying.
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