Saddam's daughter Raghad attends protest against her father's execution

AMMAN, Jordan (AP) _ Saddam Hussein's eldest daughter briefly attended a protest against her father's execution on Monday, her first public appearance since he was hanged. <br/><br/>Raghad Saddam

Monday, January 1st 2007, 9:25 am

By: News On 6

AMMAN, Jordan (AP) _ Saddam Hussein's eldest daughter briefly attended a protest against her father's execution on Monday, her first public appearance since he was hanged.

Raghad Saddam Hussein stopped in at the demonstration staged by the Professional Associations _ a body that groups unions for doctors, engineers and lawyers _ in its office parking lot in west Amman.

``God bless you, and I thank you for honoring Saddam, the martyr,'' two witnesses recalled Raghad Saddam Hussein as telling the protesters, who included a junior Cabinet minister, on her arrival. She left a minute later.

Raghad, who supervised her father's legal team, has lived in Jordan since shortly after Saddam's overthrow in April 2003. The Jordanian authorities have told her not to get involved in political activities.

Iraqi government officials hanged Saddam on Saturday after a court convicted him of ordering the killing of 148 people, including children, who were arrested after an attempt to assassinate him in the northern Iraqi town of Dujail in 1982.

His trial and execution continue to divide Arabs, with some regarding him as one of the world's most brutal dictators and others seeing him as an Arab nationalist who stood up to the West.

``We won't abandon two things, Iraq and Saddam Hussein!'' shouted the protesters at the Professional Associations. ``We sacrifice our blood and souls for you, Saddam,'' they chanted.

The minister of political development, Mohammed al-Oran, joined the demonstration, but made no speech. Members of 14 opposition political parties also took part in the protest, which ended peacefully.