13. He Was Sentenced To Death In Absentia After Trying To Kill The Prime Minister... An Assassination Attempt That Allegedly Failed Because Of Hussein's Mistake
On October 7, 1959, a group of Ba'ath Party members attempted to assassinate Prime Minister Abd al-Karim Qasim (pictured above) - with Saddam Hussein chosen as one of the members of the murder squad. With the plan being that one man was to kill those sitting in the back of Qasim's car, while the rest would murder those in the front - supposedly Hussein began shooting prematurely, which threw the operation into chaos. Although Qasim's chauffeur was shot dead, Qasim was only wounded after being hit in the shoulder - although the assassins believed at the time that they had managed to kill him. Hussein fled into exile in Syria then Egypt once he discovered the truth, however. At a show trial, six defendants who had not fled into exile were given the death sentence - although their executions were never carried out for unknown reasons - while Hussein was given a death-sentence in absentia as well.
NUFC editor for WhatCulture.com/NUFC. History graduate (University of Edinburgh) and NCTJ-trained journalist. I love sports, hopelessly following Newcastle United and Newcastle Falcons. My pastimes include watching and attending sports matches religiously, reading spy books and sampling ales.
