The Kurdish judge who sentenced former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to death has himself been captured and executed by Islamic State in Iraq & Syria (ISIS). Raouf Abdul Rahman, was killed by insurgents in retaliation for the killing of the former President of Iraq, according to Arabic newspaper almesryoon.
Jordanian Member of Parliament Khalil Attieh wrote on his Facebook page that: -Iraqi revolutionaries arrested him and sentenced him to death in retaliation for the death of the martyr Saddam Hussein.- So far the Iraqi government has not confirmed the death of Judge Rahman, but they have refused to deny the kidnapping.
Attieh also claimed that Abdul Rahman was only captured when he attempted to flee Baghdad dressed as a dancer. He is believed to have been captured on June 16th and executed around two days later. His attempted escape came after widespread rumours that he had sought asylum in Britain, fearing he was in danger.
Judge Abdul Rahman, who took over the trial of Saddam Hussain part way through as the previous judge had resigned over -foreign interference- in the process.
The judge was not always supportive of the activities of the new regime that replaced Hussein. He was fiercely critical of the execution of the former president, which took place in public. The video was initially released as a silent film but eventually the full version emerged in which Shi’ites could be heard taunting Saddam.
He branded the execution ‘uncivilised and backward’, not least because it also took place as Muslims were celebrating the religious festival Eid al-Adha.
The killing of Abdul Rahman is further evidence that Iraq has now descended into an ethnic civil war. Saddam Hussein’s regime had been almost exclusively Sunni, whereas the current government in Baghdad is Shi’ite.
The Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has been accused of discriminating against Sunnis, and causing the surge in support for ISIS. Since the insurgency began his government has lost Iraq’s second city of Mosul and has even had to draft in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard to sure up Iraqi forces.