Sa'dun Hammadi

Who was Sa'dun Hammadi?

Sa'dun Hammadi was briefly Prime Minister of Iraq under President Saddam Hussein from March until September 1991. He succeeded Hussein, who had previously been prime minister in addition to being president, but was forced out due to his reformist views.

Hammadi was born in Karbala and was a Shi'ite. He joined the Ba'ath Party during the 1940s. In addition, he earned a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1956.

Hammadi previously served a stint as Iraqi Oil Minister and was the Foreign Minister from 1974 until 1983. He also served as the Speaker of the National Assembly of Iraq from 1983 until 1990 and from 1996 until the Fall of Baghdad in 2003.

Hammadi was later imprisoned at a prison camp in Iraq. In February 2004, after nine months in the custody of the Americans, he was released and subsequently resettled in Qatar while seeking medical treatment abroad.

He died in a German hospital from leukemia on March 14, 2007. He was survived by his 2nd wife and five sons.