NEW YORK (TIP): Raouf Abdul Rahman, the Kurdish judge who sentenced former Iraqi tyrant Saddam Hussein to death has himself been captured and executed by ISIS. Rahman was killed by militants in retaliation for the killing of the former Iraqi dictator, according to local media reports and comments on social media. Ibrahim al-Douri, an aid to the ex-Iraqi president and a key figure among Sunni militants, posted on his Facebook page that ISIS had captured and killed Judge Raouf Abdul Rahman.

A Jordanian MP, Khalil Attieh wrote on his Facebook page that: “Iraqi revolutionaries arrested him and sentenced him to death in retaliation for the death of the martyr Saddam Hussein.” So far the Iraqi government has not confirmed the death of Judge Rahman, but they have refused to deny the kidnapping. Attieh also claimed that Rahman was only captured when he attempted to flee Baghdad dressed as a dancer. He is believed to have been captured on June 16th and executed around two days later.

His attempted escape came after widespread rumors that he had sought asylum in Britain, fearing he was in danger.Judge Rahman was a highly respected figure in the Iraqi legal profession. He took over the trial of Saddam Hussein part way through as the previous judge had resigned over “foreign interference” in the process. At the time the role was a vital one, as many Iraqis were still afraid to stand up to Saddam and feared that he may return to power one day.The judge was not always supportive of the activities of the new regime that replaced Hussein.

He was fiercely critical of the execution of the former dictator, which took place in public. The video was initially released as a silent film but eventually the full version emerged in which Shi’ites could be heard taunting Saddam.He branded the execution ‘uncivilized and backward’, not least because it also took place as Muslims were celebrating the religious festival Eid al- Adha. The killing of Rahman is further evidence that Iraq has now descended into an ethnic civil war.

Saddam Hussein’s regime had been almost exclusively Sunni, whereas the current government in Baghdad is Shi’ite. The Prime Minister Nouri al- Maliki has been accused of discriminating against Sunnis, and causing the surge in support for ISIS. Since the insurgency began his government has lost Iraq’s second city of Mosul and has even had to draft in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard to sure up Iraqi forces.