Taha Yassin Ramadan

Taha Yasin Ramadan al-Jizrawi (22 February 1938 – 20 March 2007) (طه ياسين رمضان الجزراوي) was a prominent Iraqi Kurd, serving as Vice President of Iraq from March 1991 to the fall of Saddam Hussein in April 2003.

In October 2002, four months before the United States invaded Iraq, Ramadan suggested U.S. President George W. Bush and Saddam Hussein settle their difference in a duel. He reasoned this would not only serve as an alternative to a war that was certain to damage Iraq's infrastructure, but that it would also reduce the suffering of the Iraqi and American peoples. Ramadan's offer included the possibility that a group of US officials would face off with a group of Iraqi officials of same or similar rank (President v. President, Vice President v. Vice President, etc.). Ramadan proposed that the duel be held in a neutral land, with each party using the same weapons, and with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan presiding as the supervisor. On behalf of President Bush, White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer declined the offer.

Following the fall of Saddam's government, Taha Yasin Ramadan was placed on the U.S. list of most-wanted Iraqis and depicted as the Ten of Diamonds in the most-wanted Iraqi playing cards. He was captured on August 19, 2003 in Mosul, by fighters of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and handed over to US forces.

He was one of the defendants in the Iraq Special Tribunal's Al-Dujail trial. On November 5, 2006 he was sentenced to life imprisonment. On December 26, 2006 the appeals court sent the case file back to the Tribunal, saying the sentence was too lenient and demanding a death sentence. On February 12, 2007 he was sentenced to death by hanging. His sentence was carried out on the fourth anniversary of Iraq's US invasion, before dawn on March 20, 2007.