Abdul Khaliq al-Samarra'i () was an Iraqi politician and leading member of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party in Iraq. He was a member of the Regional Command from 1964 to 1973, and considered a serious rival of

Saddam Hussein Saddam Hussein (28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician and revolutionary who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 1979 until Saddam Hussein statue destruction, his overthrow in 2003 during the 2003 invasion of Ira ...

for leadership of the civilian faction of the Ba'ath Party. He was arrested in 1973 for his alleged involvement in a plot to overthrow the government, and executed in 1979 by Hussein.

Biography

He was born in the city of

Samarra Samarra (, ') is a city in Iraq. It stands on the east bank of the Tigris in the Saladin Governorate, north of Baghdad. The modern city of Samarra was founded in 836 by the Abbasid caliph al-Mu'tasim as a new administrative capital and mi ...

into a wealthy family in 1935 and received a

secondary education Secondary education is the education level following primary education and preceding tertiary education. Level 2 or ''lower secondary education'' (less commonly ''junior secondary education'') is considered the second and final phase of basic e ...

there. His father sent him to finish high school and university in Baghdad. He became a member of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party in Iraq in 1952, the Iraqi Regional Command in 1964, the National Command in 1968 and the Revolutionary Command Council (RCC) in 1969. In 1972, he was Chairman of the Cultural Bureau of the RCC. During the 1966 Ba'ath Party split, al-Samarra'i sided with

Michel Aflaq Michel Aflaq (‎, ; 9 January 1910 – 23 June 1989) was a Syrian philosopher, sociology, sociologist and Arab nationalism, Arab nationalist. His ideas played a significant role in the development of Ba'athism and its political movement; he ...

. Throughout his tenureship, he was

's most notable contender for the leadership of the civilian faction, and was considered the third most powerful man in Iraq by observers. By 1973, al-Samarra'i had become a focal point for those Ba'athists who still believed in the tenets of

Ba'athism Ba'athism, also spelled Baathism, is an Arab nationalist ideology which advocates the establishment of a unified Arab state through the rule of a Ba'athist vanguard party operating under a revolutionary socialist framework. The ideology i ...

, and did not wish to follow blindly the rule of

Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr Field Marshal Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr (1 July 1914 – 4 October 1982) was an Iraqi politician who served as the fourth president of Iraq, from 17 July 1968 to 15 July 1979. He was a leading member of the revolutionary Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party a ...

. In 1973, he became implicated in Nazim Kazzar's plot to overthrow the government. Following the failed coup attempt al-Samarra'i was found guilty of anti-state activities and arrested. There are several who doubt al-Samarra'i's involvement in the failed coup. Even so, al-Bakr never ratified his death sentence, and al-Samarra'i lived in

solitary confinement Solitary confinement (also shortened to solitary) is a form of imprisonment in which an incarcerated person lives in a single Prison cell, cell with little or no contact with other people. It is a punitive tool used within the prison system to ...

until 1979. The reason that his execution was stayed was that Aflaq and

Kamal Jumblatt Kamal Fouad Jumblatt (; 6 December 1917 – 16 March 1977) was a Lebanese politician who founded the Progressive Socialist Party. He led the National Movement during the Lebanese Civil War. He was a major ally of the Palestine Liberation Organ ...

, the leader of Lebanon’s National Front, campaigned actively against giving him a death sentence. Even so, in August 1979, Saddam executed al-Samarra'i along with others who Saddam claimed were members of a conspiracy to overthrow the government.

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* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Samarra'i, Abd al-Khaliq Members of the Regional Command of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party – Iraq Region People from Samarra 1935 births 1979 deaths Iraqi Arab nationalists