THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: How pulling on a hanging man's legs made Huda Ben Amer one of Colonel Gaddafi's most trusted elite.
When Colonel Gaddafi hanged his first political opponent in Benghazi's basketball stadium, thousands of schoolchildren and students were rounded up to watch a carefully choreographed, sadistic display of the regime's version of justice.
They had been told they would see the trial of one of the Colonel's enemies.
But instead a gallows was dramatically produced as the condemned man knelt in the middle of the basketball court, weeping and asking for his mother, hands bound behind his back.
The crowd, many of them children, cried and yelled out "No, no" or called on God to help them as they realised what was about to happen. Two young men bravely ran up to the revolutionary judges and begged them for mercy.
The worst moment came right at the end, as the hanged man kicked and writhed on the gallows. A determined-looking young woman stepped forward, grabbed him by the legs, and pulled hard on his body until the struggling stopped. >>> Nick Meo, Benghazi | Sunday, March 06, 2011
