The execution of Saddam Hussein's death sentence occurred on December 30, 2006. He was condemned to death by hanging, after being found guilty, and convicted of crimes against humanity by the Iraqi Special Tribunal for the murder of 148 Iraqi Shi'ites in the town of Dujail in 1982, in revenge for an assassination attempt against him. 1

Saddam Hussein was President of Iraq and (Dictator) from July 16, 1979 until April 9, 2003, when he was deposed with the 2003 invasion of Iraq by U.S.-led Allied Coalition. After his capture in ad-Dawr, near his hometown Tikrit, he was incarcerated at Camp Cropper and on November 5, 2006, he was sentenced to death by hanging.

On December 30, 2006, he was taken to Camp Justice to be put to death. The Iraqi government released an official videotape of his execution, showing him being led to the gallows, and ending after his head was in the hangman's noose. International public controversy arose when an unauthorized videophone recording of the hanging showed him falling through the gallow's trap door, while shi'a guards chanted slogans against the dictator.

On December 31, 2006, Saddam Hussein's body was returned to his birthplace of Al-Awja, near Tikrit, and was buried in a palace near his family's graves.

Hanging

Hanging is the lethal suspension of a person by a ligature. The Oxford English Dictionary states that hanging in this sense is "specifically to put to death by suspension by the neck," although it formerly also referred to crucifixion.

For lack of a better term, hanging has also been used to describe a method of suicide in which a person applies a ligature to the neck and brings about unconsciousness and then death, by means of partial suspension or partial weight-bearing on the ligature. This method has been most often used in prisons or other institutions, where full suspension support is difficult to devise. The earliest known use in this sense was in A.D. 1300.[2]