ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Walid entered the world in 1981 just as his mother took her last breath. Her limp body fell to the ground from the gallows as she lay lifeless on the cold, hard ground. She was executed by the toppled Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s half-brother, Barzan al-Tikriti despite pleas to delay the sentence until after delivery.
A former prison official tells the story of Walid, born coincidentally at the time of his mother’s execution, who - by a strange twist of fate - was given the execution rope around the neck of his mother’s killer 26 years later in what can only be described as an act of divine retribution.
Nadhim al-Maliki,the head of Baghdad’s correctional facilities after the ouster of the Ba’athi regime (1968-2003), relayed in Rudaw’s Kawa Amin’s Fingerprint program aired on Wednesday the last moments of Ba’athi leaders, including Saddam, his deputy and foreign minister Tariq Aziz, his cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid, and his half-brother Tikriti.
"Open my belly and take the child,” Walid’s mother - next in line to be executed - pleaded to the prison authorities in Baghdad after her husband was executed.
Barzan merely replied to an earlier request of her by saying, “The child is a criminal and the son of a criminal … Execute them both," he cued the executioner with a nod of his head.
Tikriti served as the head of Iraqi National Intelligence Service from 1979 to 1983. The agency was the second layer of the Ba’ath regime’s five-layer security apparatus, overseeing civilian and foreign espionage, covert operations, and domestic political subversion.
He was executed in 2007, four years after the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
“When she fell to the ground during the execution, the fetus was delivered right as her life ended. By God’s grace, the baby was born healthy immediately after his mother died,” Maliki said, noting that he heard the stories from Walid’s relatives.
Walid’s parents were executed for suspected links to the communist party. According to Maliki, a cleaner present in the scene wrapped him in a piece of stained cloth and took him to Abu Ghraib prison, where her husband worked. He was raised by the caring couple in an environment filled with warmth, so much so that he refused to move with his biological uncle from Denmark in 2003.
Walid was an ordinary worker caught in the mundane rhythm of life, before 2004 before he joined the Iraqi correctional service.
“Fate intervened, and he was assigned to be present on the day of Barzan al-Tikriti's execution. Ultimately, Walid was the very guard who placed the noose around Barzan's neck,” Maliki relayed, who was also present at the scene.
He was the person who “pulled the lever and executed Barzan,” he noted, describing it as “a true story that testifies to the wisdom of divine justice.”
Tikriti’s head was severed from his body at the time of the execution. Iraqi authorities said at the time that it was an accidental mishap caused by using a rope whose length was not compatible with Tikriti’s body weight.
Walid’s identity remains unknown. Maliki noted that the identities of the security personnel are concealed as a security measure.
