Saddam Hussein, the ousted dictator who delivered a brutal brand of justice to Iraqis during his 24-year reign, faces trial on Wednesday by an Iraqi tribunal which could sentence him to death if he is convicted.
Rights groups have amply documented his ruthlessness and cruelty, and the court will attempt to make him answer charges of crimes against humanity during a Shi’ite civilian massacre in 1982.
Saddam’s government is also linked to the killing of many tens of thousands of Kurds and savagely crushing a Shi’ite uprising in 1991, though those cases will not figure in this trial.
Under Saddam’s leadership from 1979 to 2003, the Iraqi Baath regime ordered army deserters’ ears cut off, sentenced foreign currency traffickers to death, and was alleged to have beheaded dozens of women for prostitution.
A former CIA psychologist once described Saddam as suffering from “malignant narcissism”, exhibiting an extreme lack of empathy and the will to use violence, which he said manifested itself due to Saddam’s troubled upbringing.
Saddam was born poor in a village near Tikrit on April 28, 1937, was orphaned at a young age and raised by an uncle who was a fan of Adolf Hitler and a supporter of Nazi ideology.
Saddam overcame his impoverished roots and rose to Iraq’s highest office, lived in the grandest of palaces, married three times and fathered six children.
In Arabic, his name means “the stubborn one” or “he who strikes”.
His self-importance and cult of personality were legendary — on his 60th birthday he commissioned a handwritten copy of the Koran to be scribed in his blood, which he donated little by little.
He groomed two of his sons, Uday and Qusay, in his image. As adults they quickly became feared for their use of torture and rape rooms. They were killed during a gunbattle with US forces in the northern city of Mosul in July 2003.
Their father first made a name trying to murder Iraqi leader Abdul Karim Kassem in 1959.
Wounded in the leg, Saddam fled abroad but returned four years later and was jailed in 1964. Within two years he had escaped and resumed clandestine work for the Baath party cause.
In 1968 he took part in the coup which brought the party to power, marking another step in his affair with brute force.
As party deputy secretary general and vice president of the all-powerful Revolution Command Council (RCC), he was already considered the real power behind the throne under president Ahmad Hassan al-Bakr.
Bakr lost his grip over the next decade as Saddam strengthened his own and the president finally retired for health reasons.
Saddam seized the mantle on July 16, 1979, becoming state president, general secretary of the party and president of the RCC.
In the years following, the modern Arab state reckoned to be the cradle of civilisation was transformed into an impoverished pariah, its fabulous oil wealth squandered.
Saddam guided Iraq through the 1980-1988 bloodbath with Iran and the rout of the 1991 Gulf war over Kuwait, emerging each time to claim Pyrrhic victories over the corpses of his people.
He defied attempts through the United Nations to ensure his disarmament, the organisation’s crushing sanctions and four nights of US and British missile strikes in December 1998.
He brooked no dissent, extending frequent purges of senior figures to family and friends. Those who failed to make it into exile were detained, murdered and buried in the mass graves that have been uncovered across the country.
Since he first appeared in court in July last year, images of Saddam as a gaunt and greying prisoner have been splashed across the world — with one controversial batch of photographs even showing him in only his underwear.
The now 68-year-old Arab nationalist, who once declared his determination to die at home and taunted enemies with outrageous bravado, was toppled days after the US-led invasion began in late March 2003.
His massive statue in central Baghdad was pulled down on April 9, 2003, and nine months later he was discovered, long-haired, bearded and bedraggled, in an underground crawlspace.
His ability to evade authorities for so long is evidence of the profound influence he exerted over his people even after his ouster, as many ordinary Iraqis shrank from cooperating with the occupier for fear of his return.
But others saw him as a strong leader who rained inaccurate but psychologically damaging Scud rockets on Israel and at least briefly restored self-respect to the Arab nation.
Just days before Saddam’s trial was due to open, one such Iraqi, Salih Najem, said he had fond memories of life under the former dictator: “Nothing good has happened since the occupation — there is no fuel, there is much violence and life is difficult.”
But Saddam’s reign ended in defeat, his ubiquitous gloating portraits torn to shreds and set ablaze after the occupation of his capital.
A lust for power matched by a ruthless streak had brought Saddam to the helm he determined never to leave, whatever the cost. – AFP