BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq announced Monday that a top security official during Saddam Hussein’s rule had been hanged for his role in the 1980 killing of a prominent Shiite cleric.
The National Security Agency said Saadoun Sabri al-Qaisi, who served as a major general under Saddam Hussein, was arrested last year and convicted of “serious crimes against humanity” including the killings of prominent Iraqi Shia cleric Mohammed Baqir al-Sadr, members of the Al-Hakim family and other civilians.
The agency did not say when Gacy would be executed.
Sadr was a leading critic of Iraq’s secular Baathist government and Saddam, and his opposition intensified after Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, which heightened Saddam’s fears of a Shiite-led uprising in Iraq.
In 1980, when the government took action against Shia activists, Sadr and his sister Bint al-Huda, a religious scholar and activist who spoke out against government oppression, were arrested. There were reports that they were tortured before being hanged on April 8, 1980.
The execution sparked widespread outrage at the time and remains a symbol of repression under Saddam Hussein. Saddam was from Iraq’s Sunni minority.
Since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, authorities have been hunting for former officials accused of crimes against humanity and abuse of political and religious opponents. Iraq has been criticized by human rights groups for its use of the death penalty.