{"id":262809,"date":"2025-11-04T21:21:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-04T21:21:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/262809\/"},"modified":"2025-11-04T21:21:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T21:21:08","slug":"today-in-history-november-5-three-lawyers-murdered-defending-monstrous-dictator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/262809\/","title":{"rendered":"Today in History – November 5: Three lawyers murdered defending monstrous dictator"},"content":{"rendered":"

The trial came three years after he was removed from office by the US invasion of Iraq.<\/p>\n

But despite the dictator having been out of office for years, the violence of his regime created a profound and lingering fear for those involved in the case.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/Former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein fronting court. (AP)<\/p>\n

Three of five presiding judges were never identified publicly for their own safety.<\/p>\n

The lead prosecutor in the case was also not identified, despite much of the trial being televised.<\/p>\n

And the trial was delayed by several witnesses being too frightened to attend for fear for their own safety.<\/p>\n

Iraq at the time remained in chaos, beset by sectarian violence including by those still loyal to Hussein.<\/p>\n

But the defence team also had targets on their back.<\/p>\n

Throughout the course of the proceedings, three of the lawyers defending Hussein and his co-accused were assassinated.<\/p>\n

The former dictator was a belligerent defendant, repeatedly shouting at the judges and denying that he had been ousted as president.<\/p>\n

On several occasions he refused to enter the courtroom. He also went on hunger strike for 19 days.<\/p>\n

Though he was accused of many crimes against humanity during his reign in Iraq, he was on trial for the Dujail Massacre of 1982.<\/p>\n

Between 142 and 148 people were executed for their alleged involvement in an assassination attempt on Hussein.<\/p>\n

Those arrested were tortured into confessions and executed. <\/p>\n

Four people who had been found not guilty were mistakenly killed. <\/p>\n

Two of those condemned to die were accidentally released.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/Saddam Hussein ordered the deaths of nearly 150 people over an assassination attempt in 1982. (Nine Archives)<\/p>\n

After receiving his own death sentence, Hussein appealed the decision but it was denied a few weeks later.<\/p>\n

Four days later, he was executed by hanging.<\/p>\n

His execution date had been kept a secret, with most people not knowing about the plan until after he had died.<\/p>\n

But the execution itself was a raucous and terse affair, with guards mocking Hussein as they put the noose around his neck.<\/p>\n

Mobile phone video of the moments before his death was later leaked onto the internet.<\/p>\n

\"SaddamSaddam Hussein ruled Iraq with an iron fist for 24 years. (AAP)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The trial came three years after he was removed from office by the US invasion of Iraq. But…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":262810,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-262809","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=262809"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262809\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/262810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=262809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=262809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=262809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}