“The special criminal court in Salaheddin issued a death sentence on the five convicts who killed my father,” said Manaf al-Nida, son of Sheikh Ali al-Nida.

Manaf al-Nida said that one of the men sentenced to death was an Egyptian man who worked for his father.

Sheikh Ali al-Nida and his driver were killed after insurgents planted a bomb in their car which exploded between the town of Tikrit and Saddam’s birthplace of Awja.

Nida was the head of the Al-Baijat tribe whose home turf is in and around the province of Salaheddin, of which Tikrit is the capital.

He was a member of a delegation representing Saddam’s tribe who collected the ousted leader’s body after his execution in December 2006 for burial in Awja.