Hundreds of supporters of Saddam Hussein, many of them armed, have protested against his execution and blamed leading Iraqi Shiite politicians for carrying it out. "Coward Moqtada, Traitor Hakim," chanted men, women and children, slamming Shiite leader Moqtada al-Sadr and former Iran-based leader Abdel Aziz al-Hakim for their hero's hanging on Saturday.
Footage of Saddam's final minutes showed him being taunted by his executioners, who chanted the name of Moqtada Sadr before putting him to death.
According to AFP, the protestors rallied through Ad-Dawr, the village north of Baghdad where Saddam was captured by American forces in December 2003, firing guns in the air and carrying large posters of the ousted president.
One such poster of Saddam was inscribed with the words "Hero and Martyr Saddam Hussein".
In the nearby town of Tikrit, a bastion of Saddam supporters, dozens of mourning tents were erected for the late president even as the town was sealed off for a third straight day by security forces fearing angry reprisals for the execution. Men, women and children sat in queues facing each other in the tents.
Meanwhile, the first chief judge who presided over Saddam's trial for crimes against humanity has said that the late leader's execution by the Iraqi government was illegal. Rizkar Mohammed Amin, who later resigned as the trial's chief judge, said Iraqi law banned executions during the Eid al-Adha festival period.
The four-day Feast of the Sacrifice began for Iraqi Sunnis on Saturday -- the day Saddam was hanged in Baghdad -- and on Sunday for Shiites.
According to AFP, Amin also claimed that Iraqi law stipulates an execution must be carried out 30 days after the appeal court's decision on the sentencing, which in this case upheld the death sentence of Saddam. But in ratifying the death sentence on December 26, the appeals chamber insisted that the law stipulated the sentence be implemented within 30 days.
