When Saddam Hussein's son used to torture Iraqi athletes for poor performances

While Saddam Hussein was known for his atrocities against humans, his son, Uday Hussein, was no different.

Born in the year 1964, Uday Hussein, much like his dad, rose to power as a politician. In fact, he even held various important posts in the country, like the head of the National Olympic Committee of Iraq and the Iraq Football Association.

Uday Hussein was appointed as the chairman of the country's Olympic Committee and Football Association in the year 1984. He was known to torture the athletes representing Iraq at the highest level whenever they failed to win.

The world has seen athletes coming out and speaking against their human rights violations by Uday Hussein. There have been allegations of him beating up athletes with iron bars and locking them in prison for days.

Uday Hussein is even purported to have urinated on the bowed, shaved head of athletes who were imprisoned. He even used to cane the athletes until they turn bloody and then dunk them into sewage to make sure that the wounds they have would become infected.

Besides torturing the players, Uday Hussein is also believed to have murdered close to 50 athletes in the country during his reign as the chairman of the country's Olympic Committee and the Football Association.

The top footballing body in the world, FIFA, conducted investigations into these in the year 1997 after three footballers were allegedly tortured after Iraq's 4-1 loss to Japan in an Asian Cup match. The investigation, though, did not bear any result and no action was taken as FIFA could not find any evidence against Uday Hussein.

A former body double of Uday Hussein, Latif Yahia, described him as a 'sadist' in an interview with ESPN in 2003.

"The word that suits him is a sadist; I think Saddam's more human than Uday. This is not a sports place; this is Uday's palace, Uday's world," Yahia said to ESPN, describing Uday and the Iraqi Olympic Committee.

Uday Hussein was assassinated in mid-2003 by the forces of the United States of America (USA) after a three-hour-long firefight in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.