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SCMP Reporter

The HEART of the Matter by Kate Whitehead

Who?

The 69-year-old former president of Iraq. He was deposed during the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq.

What?

Sentenced to death by hanging. The judge ignored a plea  Hussein made earlier in the trial that he face a military firing squad instead of hanging.

Why?

He was sentenced to death for 'wilful killing' - for his role in ordering the deaths of 148 Shiite villagers in Dujail, north of Baghdad, in 1982.

How?

How did Hussein react to the news? As the judge read the verdict, Hussein  attempted to drown him out, chanting 'Allahu Akbar' (God is greatest) and 'Long Live Iraq'.

Where?

Where was he captured? He was found hiding in an underground hole in a farmhouse near his home in Tikrit, Iraq, in 2003.

When?

When was he president? He ran an authoritarian government from 1979  to 2003 - a period that included the Iran-Iraq  war (1980-88) and the Gulf war  (1991).



Saddam Hussein