Reactions to the execution of Saddam Hussein
[8] In a statement, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said, "Justice, in the name of the people, has carried out the death sentence against the criminal Saddam, who faced his fate like all tyrants, frightened and terrified during a hard day which he did not expect.
"[2] He also stated, "Your generous and pure land has got rid—and for ever—of the filth of the dictator and a black page of Iraq's history has been turned and the tyrant has died.
[9] "I don't think it will make much difference because the situation has deteriorated to such an extent that very drastic measures have to be taken to confront the militias and restore law and order", said Adnan Pachachi.
[1] Ali Hamza, a professor in the Shi'a town of Al Diwaniyah said, "Now all the victims’ families will be happy because Saddam got his just sentence.
Haider Hamed, a 34-year-old candy store owner in Baghdad and a Shi'a who lost his uncle due to Saddam, commented, "He's gone, but our problems continue.
[25] Leaders and governments of many European countries also expressed strong disapproval of using capital punishment in this and any case, including Austria,[26] Denmark,[27][28] Estonia,[29] Finland,[30] Germany,[31] Italy,[9] the Netherlands,[32] Norway,[33] Portugal,[34] Spain,[35] Sweden,[36] Switzerland,[37] and the United Kingdom.
"[46] Muammar Gaddafi, leader of Libya said that "Saddam Hussein was a prisoner of war held by the US occupation forces, and as such should have been tried in the US or Britain, rather than in an Iraqi puppet regime's kangaroo court."
Libya declared three days of mourning after Saddam's death and cancelled public celebrations around the Eid religious holiday.
"[48] Terry Davis, Secretary General of the Council of Europe, an international organization of which almost all European states are members, made an official statement condemning the execution: "The trial of Saddam Hussein was a missed opportunity ...
"[49] Perhaps one of the most vocal European leaders was Romano Prodi, the Prime Minister of Italy, who announced that his government would be campaigning at the UN for a worldwide moratorium on the death penalty.
[50] A number of Italian political figures and parties expressed disgust at the execution, and Prodi planned to use Italy's recent admission as a temporary member of the UN Security Council to campaign the General Assembly to adopt a moratorium.
[53] A Reuters reporter based in Afghanistan cited a top Taliban commander saying the death of Saddam "will boost the morale of Muslims.
"[55] Many other governments, including Canada,[56] Indonesia,[55] Pakistan,[57] Thailand,[21] and Greece,[58] expressed concerns and wishes for stability in Iraq, without passing judgment on whether or not Saddam should have been executed.
Respect for the Iraqi judicial process and the judgment in this case was expressed by many other leaders and government officials, including those of Afghanistan, China,[59] Japan,[23] the Czech Republic, France,[23] Germany,[31] Iceland,[60] Ireland,[61] the United Kingdom,[62] Australia,[63] and New Zealand.
[64] Peruvian president, Alan García, expressed approval for the execution of Saddam Hussein: "He deserved the maximum sentence in his country" and was "guilty of genocide" for using chemical weapons against other peoples for their religion or their racial origin.
"[7] Celebration in the United States occurred in at least one location in Dearborn, Michigan, at the corner of Warren and Greenfield, a heavily Shi'a Iraqi-American community.
[68] In Iran, members of the Islamic Republic expressed joy at the news of Saddam's execution: "The Iraqi people are the victorious ones."
Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Hamid-Reza Assefi told the Islamic Republic News Agency, while expressing regrets that his trial only focused on one of his crimes and not the one million killed during the Iran–Iraq War of 1980–88.
His mother stated that the boy had previously watched a news report about Saddam's execution and decided to hang himself as a form of experimentation.
"[75] Toby Dodge, an expert on Iraq, of Queen Mary, University of London stated that the showing of the execution on television "conforms to a brutal logic that Saddam Hussein used himself" and went further by saying that "this isn't even victor's justice, this is the tawdry work of an insecure government", particularly since Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki forced through Saddam's execution just four days after the appeals court upheld his conviction.
[76] The Times commented in its online edition that, in the moments immediately preceding the hanging, "the scene had begun to resemble a medieval execution or a wild hanging in Texas" amid repeated instances of taunts hurled at Saddam that drowned out the lonely voice of an unidentified person calling for calm in the face of the gravity of the situation.
[77] Writing in The Hindu, Siddharth Varadarajan compared the filming and circulation of Saddam's execution video to the picture postcards of American lynchings of African-Americans in the Deep South in the early years of the 20th century.
[78] John Burns and Marc Santora, writing in The New York Times, described the execution as "a sectarian free-for-all that had the effect, on the video recordings, of making Mr. Hussein, a mass murderer, appear dignified and restrained, and his executioners, representing Shi'ites who were his principal victims, seem like bullying street thugs.
