Kadhem Sharif height - How tall is Kadhem Sharif?

In a 2016 interview Kadhem said that he expressed his regret over his role in the Firdos Square statue destruction in which he attacked the statue with a sledgehammer. He said "Saddam has gone, but now in his place we have a 1,000 Saddam's." and "When I go past that statue, I feel pain and shame. I ask myself, why did I topple this statue. I'd like to put it back up, to rebuild it. I'd put it back up but I'm afraid I would be killed." He looked back to Saddam's time with nostalgia as "Saddam never executed people without a reason. He was as solid as a wall. There was no corruption or looting, it was safe. You could be safe." He went on to say that he hopes the two leaders viewed as responsible for the overthrow of Saddam, Tony Blair and George Bush, should be brought to justice.

The legality of Sharif's motorcycle business and collection has always been murky and he has admitted that some of his bikes were stolen in neighboring countries and smuggled into Iraq along with dealing with the bikes looted from Kuwait when Saddam Hussein invaded the country. His business finally caught up with him when in 2005 he was arrested in connection with dealing stolen bikes.

On April 9, 2003 Sharif had his chance to take revenge. Hearing that the Saddam regime had fallen he took a 10 kg (22 lb) sledgehammer and went to work on the statue of Saddam Hussein that stood in Firdos Square in Baghdad. The square is directly in front of the Palestine Hotel where the world's journalists had been staying. Seeing a crowd and a story, the reporters and their cameras streamed out of the hotel and video taped the falling of Saddam Hussein's statue. While Sharif's actions with the sledgehammer only resulted in a small dent in the statue base and bloody hands, he does claim to have handed over the Iraqi flag that was placed on the statue.

Kadhem Sharif was born in 1952 and like his father became obsessed with motorcycles. "I was 12 when I sneaked out on my father's Harley for the first time. I bought my first one eight years later, a 1966 Fatboy," Sharif recalls.