Libya to honor Saddam

Libya is set to build a statue in honor of the late Iraqi Head of State Saddam Hussein, executed in Baghdad on Saturday, it has been reported.

According to information released by Libya's state-owned Jana News Agency, the statue will show him standing on the gallows alongside a Libyan resistance leader who fought Italian occupation, and who was similarly executed in 1931.

Tripoli declared three days of mourning after Saddam’s death and cancelled public celebrations around the Eid religious holiday. Flags on Libyan government buildings flew at half-mast following his death. The former Iraq leader was sentenced to death after being convicted of crimes against humanity.

An Iraqi court handed down the sentence in November after a year-long trial over the killings of 148 Shias from the town of Dujail in the 1980s.

Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri Maliki hailed the execution, but it also sparked protests among Sunni Muslim communities in the country with U.S President George Bush terming the eventual demise of Saddam a “milestone”.

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