
Barzan Ibrahim El-Hasan al-Tikriti (born 17 February 1951 in Tikrit) (sometimes: Barazan Ibrahim al-Tikriti and Barasan Ibrahem Alhassen) (Arabic: برزان إبراهيم الحسن التكريتي) is one of three half-brothers of Saddam Hussein, and the former leader of the Iraqi secret service, Mukhabarat.
Barzan was sent by the government of Iraq to Geneva in 1988 to serve as representative to the United Nations, a post he held until 1998.
Up to 1995, he handled Saddam's personal fortune. This task was then taken over by a network of foreign brokers, since Saddam had decided that no-one in Iraq could be trusted with this task.
U.S. officials characterized him as a member of what they called "Saddam's Dirty Dozen", responsible for torture and murder in Iraq. American forces captured him on April 17, 2003.
He is the five of clubs in the most-wanted Iraqi playing cards.
He is a defendant in the Iraq Special Tribunal's Al-Dujail trial, and Abd Alsemd Alhusseini was his defence counsel. On February 1, 2006, a witness whose identity was not disclosed testified that after her arrest, Barzan had hung her naked by her feet and kicked her repeatedly.[1]
In November of 2006, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani appealed for Barzan to be moved to medical facilities to receive treatment for his spinal cancer. Barzan originally made an appeal from his cell to President George W. Bush and to President Talabani for treatment, referring to Talabani as an "old friend". [2]
On June 12, 2006, he was ejected from the courtroom and barred entry the following day, after an outburst in which he said the court was "terrifying"[3]
On November 5, 2006, Barzan, along with his co-defendants Saddam and the former Chief Justice of the Revolutionary Court Awad Hamed al-Bandar were sentenced to death by hanging.[4]
On December 30, 2006, Saddam was indeed hanged at 6:05 AM Iraqi local time (03:00 UST). Initially, Barzan and Awad were also believed to have been hanged with him. [5]
A few hours later, official statements clarified that the executions of Barzan and Awad had been postponed to give special significance to the day that Saddam was executed by hanging. Officials further indicated that the sentence against Barzan and his remaining co-defendant will be carried out after the Muslim holiday of Eid ul-Adha.[6]
On January 3, 2007, an Iraqi government official told The Associated Press that preparations were under way to hang Saddam's half-brother Barzan Ibrahim, a former intelligence chief, and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, the former chief justice of the Revolutionary Court on Thursday January 4, 2007.



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