Tuesday, January 16, 2007

More Saddam Copycats: Turkey & Yemen

Tracking the news that there have been "more copycat hangings" is not an easy task, as some articles are declaring a low number, forgetting about some past incidents, but at least one article in the Malaysian media talked on January 9th about "almost a dozen" (without backing this up with complete data).

In that context, I've search some more and here are more details on a new copycat in Turkey, and multiple copycats in Yemen.

In Turkey, 12-year-old Alisen Akti hanged himself on Wednesday, January 10, 2007, from a bunk bed after watching TV footage of the Saddam hanging videos. His father, Esat Akti, told a newspaper in the southeastern province of Mus that his son had been affected by the televised images, according to Associated Press writer Anna Johnson.

"After watching Saddam's execution he was constantly asking 'How was Saddam killed?' and 'Did he suffer?'" Akti was quoted as saying. "These television images are responsible for my son's death."

In Yemen, at least two young boys died and another was injured in apparent imitations of Saddam's hanging.

One of the cases involved a 13-year-old junior high school student who hanged himself after watching Saddam's execution on television, a Yemeni security official said.

The breakdown of "known copycats," thus, would be Algeria (12-year-old), India (15-year-old), Pakistan (9-year-old), Saudi Arabia (12-year-old), Turkey (12-year-old), USA (10-year-old, Texas; and 16-year-old, Pennsylvania); and Yemen (two young boys, including one that was a 13-year-old). All of these have been discussed, in more detail, on this blog.

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