For sale: The villas where Saddam's men revelled in wine and women

Animal: Saddam's son Uday frolics with a pistol-waving party girl
13 April 2012

The walls are cracked and damp, the floors are littered with squatters' debris and the gardens are overgrown and forgotten.

But these dilapidated villas hide a dark and grisly past: they were once luxury holiday homes owned by Saddam Hussein.

Here some of his most notorious henchmen enjoyed wild drinking parties, met beautiful women - and honed their killing skills.

Now the villas, in the South of France, are being sold and estate agents believe the Saddam connection will result in a flood of interest and send their value soaring.

One regular visitor was Saddam's half-brother Barzan al-Tikriti, who is due to follow the dictator to the gallows in the next few weeks.

Another was Saddam's reviled son Uday, who was sent to France to cool down after he killed a servant in a drunken rage.

And in one of the gardens lie some potent reminders of Saddam's violent regime: old targets in the shape of human figures, riddled with bullet holes and surrounded by spent cartridges.

Neighbours remember how shooting practice was a regular activity at the villas - and they recall the wild parties that Saddam's elite enjoyed.

Noelle Cadoret, who has a house nearby, said: "There were always beautiful women coming in and out, and what we called Arab playboys everywhere.

"They appeared to be part of the international jet set, played very loud pop music and drank all the time.

"Occasionally we heard pistol shots, and this was the men practising their shooting. They would fire at empty whisky bottles.

"We got used to it. We didn't know then that Saddam owned the villa. We only found out later."

Following Saddam's execution, the villas have been claimed by the new Iraqi government and put on the market to raise money to help rebuild the shattered country.

The villas have a combined value of around £15 million but could sell for double that because of their history.

The most luxurious property is Saddam's Villa, a £9 million mansion with two swimming pools and 350 acres overlooking Cannes.

One of Osama Bin Laden's brothers owns a house nearby. Tikriti took several holidays here when he was chief of Saddam's feared Mukhabarat intelligence service.

He became one of the "Dirty Dozen" drawn up by American forces and was deemed responsible for much of the torture and murder for which the regime became notorious.

He is expected to be executed soon, though no date has yet been confirmed.

Brutal Uday also enjoyed holidays at the mansion after his father ordered him abroad for the drunken murder of the servant.

In more recent years the house was used as a bolt hole for Iraqi intelligence agents who ultimately looted it and defaced its once-beautiful interiors.

Noelle Cadoret said: "When it was left empty you would occasionally get Iraqis going in and out to pick things up.

"They clearly knew the house wasn't theirs anymore but apparently didn't want anything left behind that might be valuable.

"We will be fascinated to see who ends up living in the house."

Saddam is not believed to have visited the home himself, though he did visit Provence - the region in which the houses are situated - with then French Prime Minister Jacques Chirac (now president) during the Seventies.

The second property is a £6 million, eight-bedroom villa with olive groves, in the nearby perfume capital of Grasse, about 25 miles from Cannes.

It was also abandoned after being confiscated during the first Gulf War. Squatters moved in, painted graffiti everywhere and set fire to rooms.

Filthy mattresses still litter the bedroom floors. The wrought-iron gates are left open, allowing anybody to wander in and out.

Its pond and swimming pool are clogged and the garden is full of weeds.

The men who used to guard this house were members of the Mukhabarat and this is where the 'human' figures were set up for target practice.

Strict privacy laws in France have made the country a useful bolt hole for exiled members of detested regimes, including Mobutu Sese Seko, the Zaire dictator, and Jean-Claude "Baby Doc' Duvalier of Haiti.

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