A video is being shared on social media claiming that they show the visuals of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein having a laugh during the pronouncement of his death sentence. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: Video of Iraq’s former President Saddam Hussein having a laugh during the pronouncement of his death sentence.
Fact: The video shared in the post does show the visuals from Iraq’s High Tribunal hearing the Saddam Hussein case, but this hearing took place months before the Tribunal had passed a verdict confirming Saddam’s death sentence in December 2006. While listening to his co-defendant’s conversation with Chief Judge Raouf Abdul Rahman, Saddam Hussein had a laugh in the courtroom. After the Chief Judge read out his death verdict, Saddam Hussein appeared shaken and shouted “Allahu Akbar!”, “Long Live the People!’ and a few slogans against the foreign occupation of Iraq. The video shared in the post does not show Saddam Hussein’s emotional moments during the pronouncement of his death sentence. Hence, the claim made in the post is MISLEADING.
On reverse image search of the screenshots of the video shared in the post, a video showing similar visuals is found published on the ‘AP Archives’ YouTube channel. ‘AP News’ published this video with the title, “Saddam Hussein in court, says on hunger strike, turbulent scenes.” This video shows the footage of Saddam Hussein’s trial hearing on 14 February 2006, eight months before Iraq’s High Tribunal pronouncement the death sentence to Saddam Hussein. While listening to his co-defendant’s conversation with Chief Judge Raouf Abdul Rahman, Saddam Hussein had a laugh in the court on 14 February 2006. News articles reporting the details of this court hearing can be seen here and here.
When we searched for the videos of Saddam Hussein’s trial, a video showing Saddam Hussein’s emotional moments during the pronouncement of his death sentence verdict were found published on the ‘AP Archive’ YouTube channel. On 05 November 2006, Saddam Hussein was sentenced to death by Iraq’s High Tribunal after being found guilty of crimes against humanity.
After the Chief Judge read out his death verdict, Saddam Hussein appeared shaken and shouted “Allahu Akbar!”, “Long Live the People!’, ‘Long live the nation!’ and shouted a few slogans against the foreign occupation of Iraq. Several news websites published articles reporting Saddam Hussein’s death sentence verdict passed by Iraq’s High Tribunal in November 2006. They can be seen here and here.
To sum it up, this video of Saddam Hussein laughing in the courtroom doesn’t show his emotional moments during the pronouncement of his death sentence.
