The government video , which was shown to the journalists, was blurred. It showed him lying on his chest , while the severed head lay a few yards away.
According to witnesses, he looked tense.
"I did not do anything," he was quoted as saying. "It was all the work of Fadel al-Barrak." Al-Barrak ran two intelligence departments in Saddam's feared Mukhabarat.
Iraqi officials were trying to dispel the impression that his body was mutilated.
The mourners , who was gathered at the funeral were very angry. They were cursing the government. They were holding arms and firing in the air.
The botched hanging aroused Arab suspicions of foul play and malice, deepening the divide between the Iraqi government and Arabs in other countries.