The controversial photo of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, displayed in the window of a major road, has been taken down by the new owner of a restaurant.
The previous owner of the Lebanese restaurant in Station Road, Harrow, Ayyad Al-Hamdan, received death threats in March after he staged a protest in an effort to highlight human rights abuses in his home country of Kuwait , and refused to take the picture down when asked by the leader of Harrow Council Susan Hall after the authority received a raft of complaints .
Mr Al-Hamdan, who ran the restaurant under the name This Is It, has since moved on however, with a new restaurant being formed and owners tearing down the photo.
New owner Ahmad Azzam, who has renamed the restaurant Diwan Beirut, said: "Taking that portrait down was the first thing I did.
"We do not want to offend anybody. If you have political views, you leave them at home. It is not for the workplace or the public.
"There are family of British soldiers who died in Iraq fighting Saddam. What does it say for their mothers, to see him displayed here?
"The picture made his business go down to zero and he was not doing trade any more.
“It was not very wise.”
