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Sam Penrod Reporting Iraqis now living in Utah have been watching closely tonight for news of Saddam's execution.
We spoke with two Iraqis who fled Saddam's brutality after the first Gulf War. They are both now American citizens and hope that Saddam's execution will bring a new chapter to Iraq.
Loay Allabas: "I've been waiting for this all day, waiting to get the news."
Loay Allabas is a former Iraqi who knows firsthand how Iraqi's suffered under Saddam Hussein.
Loay Allabas: "I still have some family members, nobody knows where they are at they are either buried alive somewhere or tortured to death."
He believes Saddam's execution by the new Iraqi government proves that democracy has arrived to Iraq.
Loay Allabas: "The Iraqi people when they got the power themselves they are not going to treat Saddam as he use to treat them before. They treated him with justice; they took him to court and a fair trial."
Kamal Bewar: "Saddam deserves death, and that's a good thing for the Iraqi people."
Other Iraqis admit that when Saddam was captured, his reign of terror was over, but it is still important for justice to be served.
Kamal Bewar: "The people suffered under his regime, so much and it's indescribable, you cannot describe it, what happened to the Iraqi people and the Kurdish people."
Kamal has seen for himself the new Iraq, working as a translator for the US government, and has personally met the new president of Iraq. He believes it is essential the United States continue to support Iraq, despite recent hard times.
Kamal Bewar: "Our policy as Americans and this administration continues to support the Iraqi people, even though a lot of time we hear some nonsense in our media; but we really have done a great job for the Iraqi people."
