Uday Hussein

Uday Hussein (born June 18, 1964, Baghdad, Iraq—died July 22, 2003, Mosul, Iraq) was an Iraqi official who was the oldest son of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and thus was a central figure in his father’s brutal 24-year rule. He was for many years regarded as his father’s heir apparent. Uday was a flamboyant womanizer who financed his lavish lifestyle largely through smuggling and racketeering. His erratic and violent behaviour was widely known, and he allegedly reveled in wanton murder, rape, and particularly vicious forms of torture.

Uday attended the University of Baghdad College of Engineering and the Al-Bakh Military Academy, although he reportedly showed little interest or ability in either. From the mid-1980s he controlled a radio station, a television station, and the daily newspaper Babil (Arabic for Babylon), as well as the Ministry of Youth. In his role as head of the Iraqi Olympic Committee in the mid-1990s, Uday reportedly jailed and tortured athletes who failed to live up to his expectations.

Uday alienated his father in 1988 when he beat one of Saddam’s personal aides to death in public. As a result, he was briefly imprisoned and then exiled to Switzerland. After returning to Iraq in about 1990, Uday became head of the paramilitary fedayeen. He oversaw the punishment of disloyal soldiers during and after the 1990–91 Persian Gulf War and was thought to have been responsible for the deaths of his two brothers-in-law who had defected to Jordan and then returned to Iraq. He was left partially paralyzed by an assassination attempt in 1996.

By about 2000, Uday’s brutality had reportedly alienated his father, and it was believed that Saddam had decided that he would be succeeded by his more discreet second son, Qusay. When the United States led an invasion of Iraq in 2003, Uday and Qusay were declared the second and third most wanted officials of Saddam’s regime. Both were killed in a shoot-out with American troops after they were found hiding in a private residence.