I heard a report that I can't seem to confirm with a link, that Muqtada al-Sadr is claiming that his men executed Saddam Hussein, not the Iraqi government.
I suspect that's not true, but he is projecting that perception, and widespread fear in the Sunni population.
If al-Sadr's men killed Hussein, then it was ethnic cleansing, and not a legitimate war crimes trial and execution. And if that is not true, but still the widely held perception, then the impact on Iraq's democratic authority is largely the same.
