Saddam Hussein is expected to be led to the gallows dressed in an orange prison uniform, his face covered in a cone-shaped black hood, an Iraqi government official who witnessed a recent state execution told The Times.

The official, who did not want to be named, said that an Iraqi prisoner on death row is brought before three or four judges, who tell him that he can write a will or ask for forgiveness.

The inmate is then led to a cell called the “waiting room”. He can pray, drink water, smoke cigarettes or write. The guards will also bring him his last meal. “The prisoners will try to drag it out three or four hours, but then finally they just want to get it done. Sometimes they have pushed it back a day,” the official said.

When the prisoner is ready, guards place the hood over his head, guide him to the gallows chamber and lead him up eight steps on to a metal platform, where the hangman waits. “That way it is easier on the executioner,” the official said. “It’s a hell of a job.”

The hangman then lowers a noose over the prisoner’s neck. It is designed to kill instantly. He shifts a lever and a metal trap door slides open. It screeches, but otherwise there is only silence as the man drops through the trap door.

“He dies immediately, so he doesn’t suffer. They lower the body to the ground, put it on a stretcher and then it is taken to the refrigerator trailer.” Relatives can pick up the body on the same day.

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