After his trial on specimen charges of murder and crimes against humanity, his appeal was rejected last Tuesday in only 15 minutes. There can have been little doubt in his mind that he was what the Americans call a “dead man walking” and that punishment would swiftly follow.

In a farewell letter written after his conviction 56 days ago, released by his lawyers last week, Saddam took solace in a religious quality not seen during his reign: “I say goodbye to you, but I will be with the merciful God who helps those who take refuge in him and who will never disappoint any honest believer.” Instead of railing against his US captors and the Iraqis who put him on trial, he urged Iraqis “not to hate, because hate does not leave space for a person to be fair and it makes you blind and closes all doors of thinking”. He portrayed himself as a martyred victim of “unjust nations” and added, “Long live jihad and the mujaheddin”.

Over the past five days, languishing in his military prison cell, watched constantly through video cameras by his American guards, Saddam was apparently able to summon impregnable reserves of courage and acceptance.

On Wednesday his lawyers filed a last-ditch appeal in Washington to try to block the execution. Ramsey Clark, the former US attorney-general who joined the defence team, revealed that the petition had to be filed on behalf of one of Saddam’s co-defendants because the former dictator rejected the move.

“He said it would be interpreted as his seeking mercy from the United States, and he would never permit it,” said Clark.

The US court refused to intervene in what the judge ruled was a matter for Iraqi jurisdiction. On Thursday Saddam was visited by two of his half brothers, who took away his will and personal belongings. By Friday it was clear that officials were rushing to carry out the execution before the festival of Eid al-Adha, which began for Sunni Muslims late yesterday.

Finally, late on Friday evening Baghdad time, US soldiers escorted Saddam in handcuffs from his cell at Camp Cropper, on the outskirts of Baghdad, to the former headquarters of his military intelligence service in the Iraqi capital’s Kadhimiya district. He was carrying the Koran.

One report said that Saddam wanted to sleep but his Iraqi guards, all members of the Shi’ite Sciri party, put him in a cell and subjected him to hours of taunting before his execution.

A guard known as Ali the Butcher claimed to have the rope they would hang him with, “and he was telling Saddam, ‘It’s waiting for you, it’s waiting for you’,” said one source. “The guards were dancing in front of him. When Saddam tried to sleep, they were going in every 30 minutes.”

This performance ended when his executioners and witnesses to his death arrived. He greeted them indifferently.

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