Is audio in a social media post the actual voice of late Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein claiming he is alive? No, that's not true: It is part of a deepfake video which claims to show former US President Donald Trump engaged in a telephone conversation with Mr Hussein. The late Iraqi strongman was hanged to death on December 30, 2006 following his conviction by an Iraqi court, ten years before Mr Trump was elected to the US Presidency.
The claim about Saddam Hussein being alive appeared on April 5, 2023, in a TikTok video posted by the user samakareem03. The video is archived here.
Below is the post as it appeared on TikTok at the time of this publication:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Wed Apr 12 09:38:06 2023 UTC)
In the video altered with cloned voices, we hear and see Mr Trump saying, "We are recording the call for publication," followed by fabricated Arabic language audio of Mr Hussein, then Mr Trump is shown asking, "Saddam, since you will be released from prison, do you want to send a message to the people of Iraq?".
A sound-alike voice of Saddam Hussein, says:
My message to the Arabs: My rule ends in the year 2024. My second message is to the honorable people of Iraq: I'm returning to Iraq, God willing, to hold accountable all those who were disloyal to us.
In a caption, the author claims that the reason Mr Trump is being prosecuted in the United States is because he released the telephone recording.
