Malaysian ex-PM: Saddam killing barbaric, sadistic

Malaysia's former prime minister, Mahathir Mohamad, on Monday slammed the execution of Saddam Hussein as barbaric, sadistic and a public murder. "If we support human rights and justice, we must condemn this barbaric lynching of Saddam Hussein," Mahathir, a vocal critic of the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, said in a statement issued through national news agency Bernama. He said the "sadistic act" of broadcasting the former Iraqi president's execution to the world was a travesty of justice designed to demonstrate the imperial power of the United States.