Taha Yassin Ramadan

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Taha Yassin Ramadan
Taha Yassin Ramadan
In office
March 1991 – April 9, 2003
Succeeded by Ibrahim Jaafari, in the Coalition Provisional Authority
Head of the Iraqi Popular Army
In office
1974[1] – 1991
Born February 22, 1938
Mosul, Iraq
Died March 20, 2007 (aged 69)
Baghdad, Iraq
Political party Ba'ath Arab Socialist Party

Taha Yasin Ramadan al-Jizrawi (February 22, 1938 – March 20, 2007) (Arabic: طه ياسين رمضان الجزراوي‎) was the Vice President of Iraq from March 1991 to the fall of Saddam Hussein in April 2003.

[edit] Biography

Born in Mosul and of Kurdish origin,[2] he became a bank clerk after completing his education.[3] In 1956 he joined the Ba'ath Party where he worked with Saddam Hussein, becoming a member of the Iraqi Revolutionary Command Council after the 1963 coup that brought the Ba'ath Party to power.[3] For a time he led the Popular Army, which was dissolved in 1991 when Saddam made him Vice President of Iraq.[3]. He was executed by the occupation forces on the 4th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq by the USA.

In July 1979, opening a specially convened Ba'ath Party meeting, Taha Yasin Ramadan announced that there was a plot against Saddam Hussein who read out a list of more than sixty names of alleged conspirators. They were led away and during that same day they were tried with fifty-five of them being found guilty. Of the fifty-five, twenty-two were executed.[4]

[edit] Capture, trial and execution

Following the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Taha Yasin Ramadan was placed on the U.S. list of most-wanted Iraqis, and later depicted as the Ten of Diamonds in the most-wanted Iraqi playing cards. He was captured on August 19, 2003 in Mosul, by fighters of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and handed over to US forces.[5]

He was a defendant in the Iraq Special Tribunal's Al-Dujail trial. On November 5, 2006 he was sentenced to life imprisonment. On November 8, 2005, while he was on trial, one of his defense lawyers, Adel al-Zubeidi, was assassinated by three gunmen.[6]

However, on December 26, 2006 the appeals court sent the case file back to the Tribunal, saying the sentence was too lenient and demanding a death sentence.[7] On February 12, 2007 he was sentenced to death by hanging[8]. His sentence was carried out exactly on the fourth anniversary of Iraq's US invasion, before dawn on March 20, 2007 at 3:05 AM Iraqi time, 12:05 UTC. [9][10] His son Ahmad Ramadan stated his father would be buried in Tikrit, near Saddam's burial place, adding: "It was not an execution. It was a political assassination."[11]

[edit] References

  1. ^ People's Army / Popular Army / People's Militia (HTML). globalsecurity.org (2007). Retrieved on 2008-04-24.
  2. ^ Lawrence Joffe (March 21, 2007). Taha Yassin Ramadan. Guardian. Retrieved on 2007-03-21.
  3. ^ a b c Obituary: Taha Yassin Ramadan. BBC News (March 20, 2007). Retrieved on 2007-03-20.
  4. ^ John Simpson (2003). The Wars Against Saddam. Macmillan. ISBN 1-4050-3264-2. 
  5. ^ CBS/Associated Press (August 19, 2003). Saddam's VP Is Captured. CBS News. Retrieved on 2007-03-20.
  6. ^ Rick Jervis (November 8, 2005). Another lawyer on Saddam's team assassinated. USA Today. Retrieved on 2007-03-20.
  7. ^ Associated Press (December 28, 2006). Iraqi court upholds Saddam’s death sentence. MSNBC. Retrieved on 2007-03-20.
  8. ^ Top Saddam aide sentenced to hang. BBS News (February 12, 2007). Retrieved on 2007-03-20.
  9. ^ Former Iraq vice-president hanged. BBC News (March 20, 2007). Retrieved on 2007-03-20.
  10. ^ KIM GAMEL (March 20, 2007). Taha Yassin Ramadan, Saddam's Deputy, Is Hanged Before Dawn (HTML). Associated Press. Retrieved on 2008-04-24.
  11. ^ Saddam's deputy hanged. ITV News (March 20, 2007). Retrieved on 2007-03-20.