Taha Yassin Ramadan

Infobox Deputy Prime Minister
name = Taha Yassin Ramadan


imagesize = 150px
caption =
order = member of the Iraqi Revolutionary Command Council
Vice President of Iraq
term_start = March 1991
term_end = April 9, 2003
successor = Ibrahim Jaafari, in the Coalition Provisional Authority
order2 = Head of the Iraqi Popular Army
term_start2 = 1974cite web |date=2007 |url = http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/iraq/militia.htm|title = People's Army / Popular Army / People's Militia|format = HTML |publisher = globalsecurity.org| accessdate = 2008-04-24 | last= |quote=]
term_end2 = 1991
birth_date = February 22, 1938
birth_place = Mosul, Iraq
death_date = death date and age|2007|03|20|1938|02|22
death_place = Baghdad, Iraq
party = Ba'ath Arab Socialist Party
religion =

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

Biography

Born in Mosul and of Kurdish origin, [cite web | url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,2038865,00.html | title=Taha Yassin Ramadan | author=Lawrence Joffe | date=March 21, 2007 | work=Guardian | accessdate=2007-03-21] he became a bank clerk after completing his education.cite web | url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/2333287.stm | title=Obituary: Taha Yassin Ramadan | date=March 20, 2007 | work=BBC News | accessdate=2007-03-20] 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. For a time he led the Popular Army, which was dissolved in 1991 when Saddam made him Vice President of Iraq.. He was executed by the coalition 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. [cite book | title=The Wars Against Saddam | author=John Simpson | year=2003 | publisher=Macmillan | id=ISBN 1-4050-3264-2]

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. [cite web | url=http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/08/19/iraq/main569080.shtml | title=Saddam's VP Is Captured | author=CBS/Associated Press |date=August 19, 2003 | work=CBS News | accessdate=2007-03-20]

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. [cite web | url=http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2005-11-08-iraq_x.htm | title=Another lawyer on Saddam's team assassinated | author=Rick Jervis | date=November 8, 2005 | work=USA Today | accessdate=2007-03-20]

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. [cite web | url=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13163805/ | title=Iraqi court upholds Saddam’s death sentence | author=Associated Press | date=December 28, 2006 | work=MSNBC | accessdate=2007-03-20] On February 12, 2007 he was sentenced to death by hanging [cite web | url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6354205.stm | title=Top Saddam aide sentenced to hang |date=February 12, 2007 | work=BBS News | accessdate=2007-03-20] . 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. [cite web | url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6468495.stm | title=Former Iraq vice-president hanged | date=March 20, 2007 | work=BBC News | accessdate=2007-03-20 ] cite web |date=March 20, 2007|url = http://www2.nysun.com/article/50761|title = Taha Yassin Ramadan, Saddam's Deputy, Is Hanged Before Dawn|format = HTML |publisher = Associated Press| accessdate = 2008-04-24 | last= KIM GAMEL|quote=] 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." [cite web | url=http://www.itv.com/news/world_58d409b15a1d414b80b58589227dcd83.html | title=Saddam's deputy hanged | date=March 20, 2007 | work=ITV News | accessdate=2007-03-20 ]

References