Al-Maliki orders investigation into Saddam hanging

Al-Jazeera said that when it broadcast the video, it was exclusive to them. The pictures appeared on the Web at about the same time.

The taunts hurled at Saddam referred to Moqtada al-Sadr, the radical Shi’ite cleric who is a supporter of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, the Shi’ite leader who pushed for a quick execution of Saddam.

Sami al-Askar, a close adviser of the PM, said on Tuesday that al-Maliki had “ordered the formation of an investigative committee in the Interior Ministry to identify who chanted those slogans and who filmed the execution and sent it to the media.”

The video was inflammatory not only because the chanting was clearly audible, but also for showing Saddam’s actual death as he dropped through the gallows floor and then swung by his neck, his eyes open and his neck twisted dramatically to his right.

The clandestine video portrayed a very different scene from the official tape which did not show the former leader dropping to his death.

Munqith al-Faroon, an Iraqi prosecutor whose job was to convict Hussein of genocide, was present at the hanging and defended Saddam’s right to die in peace. He said he knew that “two top officials had mobiles with them at the execution, though cell phones were not allowed. ”

Saddam’s execution and the way it was conducted have provoked anger among Sunnis, who have taken to the streets in mainly peaceful protests across the country.

On Monday, a crowd of Sunni mourners in Samarra marched to the bomb-damaged Golden Dome, a Shi’ite shrine, and were allowed by police to enter the holy place carrying a mock coffin and photos of the former dictator.