Sun criticised over Saddam pictures

The Sun newspaper has been heavily condemned for publishing photographs showing captured dictator Saddam Hussein half naked.

The paper’s front page today carried a photo of the former Iraqi dictator in a pair of underpants, with the headline ‘The Tyrant’s In His Pants’.

Inside the paper are further photos of 68-year-old Saddam, who was captured by US forces in December 2003 and is being held prisoner in an undisclosed location. The photos show the former Iraqi president sleeping and washing clothes in a bowl and the article that accompanies the photos says that Saddam is kept in a 12ft by 9ft cell, containing a small desk and a pink plastic chair.

The US military has condemned the Sun for publishing the photographs and said that the photos could be a possible violation of the Geneva Convention. In a statement, the military said that the incident would be “aggressively investigated”. The statement said: “Multi-National Force-Iraq is disappointed at the possibility that someone responsible for the security, welfare and detention of Saddam would take and provide these photos for public release”.

The Sun said that they received the photos from US military sources, who, they said, wanted to show that Saddam was “not Superman or God” but an “ageing and humble old man”.

The Sun defended its decision to publish the photos. The paper’s Managing Editor Graham Dudman told the BBC that the photos were “incredible pictures of the world’s most brutal dictator” and said that any newspaper or broadcaster would publish them.

(KMcA)