Saddam hanging sets off copy-cat deaths of boys

The leaked videos, apparently taken by cell phone cameras, set off international outrage over the raucous scene at Saddam’s execution, but some experts are more concerned about the images of the deposed Iraqi leader dropping through the gallows floor and his body swinging at the end of a rope.

The experts say such graphic images can severely affect children at a very young age who do not yet understand the consequences of death and violence—especially because Saddam’s death received intense international attention.

“They see how it’s done, but they don’t think it’s horrific, and they’re more likely to imitate it,” said Hisham Ramy, an associate professor of psychiatry at Ain Shams University in Cairo.

A day after Saddam’s execution, a 10-year-old boy in Texas hanged himself from a bunk bed after watching a news report on the execution. Police in the Houston suburb of Webster said the boy, Sergio Pelico, tied a slipknot around his neck while on the bed but had not meant to kill himself.

Something similar occurred in Turkey, where 12-year-old Alisen Akti hanged himself on Wednesday from a bunk bed after watching TV footage. His father, Esat Akti, told a newspaper in Mus that his son had been affected by the televised images. “After watching Saddam’s execution he was constantly asking ‘How was Saddam killed?’ and ‘Did he suffer?’” Akti was quoted as saying. “These television images are responsible for my son’s death.”

Nine-year-old Mubassahr Ali, from the eastern Pakistan town of Rahim Yar Khan, died hours after Saddam when he also mimicked the ousted leader’s execution, local police official Sultan Ahmed Chaudhry said. “The boy used a long piece of cloth, tied it to a ceiling fan and wrapped its other end around his neck. Then he stood on a chair and fell down,” he said.

In Yemen, two young boys died and another was injured in imitations of Saddam’s hanging. One of the cases involved a 13-year-old junior high school student who hanged himself after watching Saddam’s execution on television, a Yemeni security official said.

In Hafr al-Baten in Saudi Arabia, a 12-year-old boy, Sultan Abdullah al-Shemmeri, was found by his brother’s body hanging from an iron door with a rope around its neck, the newspaper Okaz reported.

Because “some people have said Saddam is a hero and martyr and have glorified his death, this has affected children,” Ramy said. But Jasem Hajia, a child psychologist in Kuwait City, cautioned against placing all the blame on video images.