Saddam Hussein's half-brother and the chief judge under his Baath Party regime followed him to the gallows early Monday, hanged for their roles in the killings of 148 persons after a 1982 assassination attempt, a defense lawyer said. Barzan Hassan, the former chief of his secret police, and Awad Bandar, the country's former chief judge under the former regime, were hanged about 5 a.m. Monday (9 p.m. Sunday ET), said Badee Aref, a defense lawyer for several of the former regime officials. A source in the office of Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki confirmed the executions had taken place. A close source to the Iraqi High Tribunal told CNN that both men were executed at the same location where Hussein had been executed. The men were executed at the same time, the source said. Hassan and Bandar were sentenced to death in November for the executions of 148 people from the village of Dujail after an unsuccessful attempt to kill Hussein.
