Mubarak Calls Saddam Execution "disgraceful" And "horrific"

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Egyptian President Hosny Mubarak, in remarks published Friday, called the execution of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein "disgraceful" and "horrific." "It was disgraceful and very painful," Mubarak told the Israeli Yediot Ahronot daily in an interview from the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, published also in al-Ahram. "All over the world people are executed, but what happened in Baghdad on the first day of (the Moslem holiday) Eid al-Adha was unimaginable," he said. "I am not here to say whether Saddam deserved the death penalty or not. I am also not getting into the question whether this court under occupation was legal," he said, but added: "How do you present such a thing to little children. It is horrific. In the end, no one will ever forget the circumstances and the way in which Saddam was executed. "They have turned him into a martyr and the problems in Iraq remain," the Egyptian leader said. Mubarak also said he had sent a message to US President George W Bush before the hanging, urging that the execution be postponed. The US had previously said that it was not involved in any part of the execution and that it had also urged Baghdad to postpone it. Bush on Thursday said the execution should have been more dignified and that he welcomed the Iraqi government's investigation into it.