The Iraqi government on Sunday banned individual visits to the grave of Saddam Hussein, the country’s former leader who was executed in 2006, media reports said.
The ban comes over two years after the Iraqi authorities prohibited organised visits to former Iraqi president in the Salahudin province.
“The Iraqi cabinet directed authorities of Salahudin province to take all necessary measures to prevent any visit to Saddam Hussein’s grave,” Xinhua quoted a source from the provincial operations as saying.
The former dictator, along with his two sons and other relatives, is buried in his hometown of al-Ouja near Tikrit in Salahudin north of Baghdad.
Hussein was executed in 2006 after an Iraqi court sentenced him to death for crimes against humanity.
Since Hussein supporters and schoolchildren used to make visits there on the late dictator’s birthday and hanging date, the Iraqi government in mid-2009 had banned organised group visits to Saddam’s grave.
However, visits by individuals from different provinces, including Shiite ones, had continued after the first ban.
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