Romanian authorities have ordered special security measures around the Iraq Embassy in Bucharest this weekend to cope with a possible demonstration of Iraqi citizens in this country, following an announcement this weekend that ex-Iraqi president Saddam Hussein would be hanged according to a court verdict that he was responsible for the execution of 148 Shiites in the eighties.
The sentence on Sunday was related to the massacre carried among Shiites in the Doujad’l city after a failed attempt against Saddam in 1982. On hearing the verdict, a visibly shocked Saddam Hussein called the name of Allah and of the Iraqi people and demanded that he be executed otherwise, not by gallows.
Two other top officials of the Saddam regime were also sentenced to gallows while a third was sentenced to life prison over the massacre.
The Realitatea TV news channel interviewed Romanian Ambassador to Iraq Mihai Stuparu yesterday who said that shots were fired in Baghdad yesterday as locals celebrated the verdict, which was welcomed by the US but prompted cautions against the death penalty from the EU.
