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Story begins:
Why was Saddam Hussein haunted by the brutal murder of Iraq's boy king?
By Michael Thornton
Last updated at 12:07 AM on 08th August 2008
Waiting in a spartan, concrete-lined chamber at Camp Justice, an Iraqi army base in Kazimain, a north-eastern suburb of Baghdad, the 69-year-old fallen dictator Saddam Hussein, dressed in a black overcoat, stood on the trapdoor of the gallows.
Found guilty of crimes against humanity during his 24 years as President of Iraq, he had been sentenced to death.
But even now, in his last moments, he maintained his old defiance.
Saddam Hussein moments before his death
Spurning the use of a black hood over his head, he shouted 'Allah is great', as three masked executioners placed the rope around his throat.
The platform dropped and there was an audible crack, indicating that his neck was broken. One of modern history's most ruthless tyrants was dead at last.
Only moments before the end, on December 30, 2006, Shi'ite observers at the execution had hurled sectarian insults at Saddam (a Sunni), taunting him with the name of his great antagonist, the radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada Sadr.
'Moqtada! Moqtada!' they jeered. Saddam repeated the name mockingly, adding: 'Do you consider this bravery?'
But despite the hopes and jubilation of his enemies, Saddam's thoughts in those final moments are unlikely to have been of Moqtada, but of another much younger man - one born only two years before himself: the tragic last King of Iraq, whose brutal murder 50 years ago this summer not only shocked and horrified the world, but haunted and obsessed Saddam for the rest of his days.
In the dock: Saddam Hussein was obsessed by the murdered boy king of Iraq Faisal II....
There's is a video report on the Royal Cemetery at Live Leak:
liveleak.com/view?i=780_1197586452&c=1
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