Hussein Co-Defendants May Be Executed Thurs.

An Iraqi cries on the grave of the country's former president Saddam Hussein in Ouja, 115 kilometers (70 miles) north of Baghdad, Iraq, Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2007. Sunni Muslims, angered by Saddam's execution and the way his hanging was carried out, have taken to the streets in recent days in mainly peaceful demonstrations in Sunni enclaves across the country. (AP Photo/Bassim Daham) (Bassim Daham - AP)

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- An Iraqi government official told The Associated Press on Wednesday that preparations were under way to hang two of Saddam Hussein's co-defendants on Thursday.

Al-Arabiya satellite television and Al-Furat TV, run by Iraq's major Shiite Muslim political organization, both also reported that Saddam's half brother Barzan Ibrahim, a former intelligence chief, and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, the former chief justice of the Revolutionary Court, would be put to death Thursday.

The government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information, said the exact place and time of the hangings had not been set.

The two co-defendants were originally scheduled to hang last Saturday along with Saddam.

The former Iraqi leader and the two co-defendants were convicted and sentenced to hang on Nov. 5 and the verdict was upheld by the appellate court on Dec. 26.

The hanging of Barzan and al-Bandar was delayed, however, until after the Eid al-Adha holiday, which ends Wednesday for Iraq's majority Shiites.

The holiday marks the end of the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia.

The three men were sentenced to death for the killing of 148 Sunni Muslims from the town of Dujail after a failed 1982 assassination against Saddam in the northern city.