Source: UK Times Online

The Awenis lived in a two-storey house on a dusty road in western Baghdad. To their neighbours they were just another family — and no-one suspected that they were capable of abducting a local boy, collecting a ransom for his release, killing him and dumping his body in an acid bath.

The public response to the murder of 11-year-old Muntadher al-Mussewi has led the Iraqi Government to make plans for the first public execution since the fall of Saddam Hussein, The Times has learnt. In a departure from the legal practices that the West has tried to encourage, the Governor of Baghdad has declared his support for such an execution and an aide to Nouri al-Maliki, the Prime Minister, has discussed the matter with members of the boy’s tribe.

Government officials said that they feared an outbreak of mass violence if proper vengeance was not seen to be exacted. Police have already broken up an armed stand-off between the Mussewi tribe and the kidnappers’ Aweni tribe. Both are connected to the top two Shia militia groups.

Two uncles of the leading kidnapper have given written pledges to the judge presiding over the case and the local police commander that they approve of a public execution in an attempt to prevent further violence.

Officials have designated a spot outside the home of the dead boy for a hanging and have broadcast the location from the speakers of mosques in the neighbourhood of Hay al-Amel. No date has been set because the official sentencing has yet to take place, but that seems a formality.

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