"Saddam Hussein's execution followed by murder of his two associates"- Pravda.
That was the headline in Pravda, one of the first news organisations to run the story.
It turned out to be true. Despite the worldwide protests over the killing of Saddam by Iraqi authorities hanged Saddam Hussein's half brother and the former head of Iraq's Revolutionary Court. Hussein's two associates were hanged before dawn on Monday, Prosecutor Munqith al-Faroon said, two weeks and two days after the former Iraqi dictator was killed.
Barzan Ibrahim, Saddam's half brother and former intelligence chief, and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, head of Iraq's Revolutionary Court, had been found guilty along with Saddam of in the killing of 148 Shiite Muslims after a 1982 assassination attempt on the former leader in the town of Dujail north of Baghdad.
"They (government) called us before dawn and told us to send someone. I sent a judge to witness the execution and it happened," al-Faroon said.
Two aides to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki confirmed that the executions had taken place. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the government had not yet released the information, the AP reports.
Government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh was to hold a news conference later Monday and was expected to announce the hangings.
The executions reportedly occurred in the same Saddam-era military intelligence headquarters building in north Baghdad where the former leader was hanged two days before the end of 2006, according to an Iraqi general, who would not allow use of his name because he was not authorized to release the information. The building is located in the Shiite neighborhood of Kazimiyah.
The two men were to have been hanged along with Saddam on Dec. 30, but Iraqi authorities decided to execute Saddam alone on what National Security adviser Mowaffak al-Rubaie called a "special day."
Last week, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani urged the government to delay the executions.
See also: Saddam video - we are all executioners now
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