Saddam sentenced to death

A shaken but defiant Saddam Hussein was sentenced on Sunday to death by hanging as the dramatic end to his trial drove another wedge between the country's already bitterly divided factions. Judge Rauf Rasheed Abdel Rahman was obliged to shout to make the sentence heard over Saddam's protestations.
"Make him stand," barked the Judge, as Saddam shouted at the guards: "Don't bend my arms. Don't bend my arms." A court official held Saddam's hands as he was pushed into place to hear Judge Abdel Rahman declare: "The highest penalty should be implemented."
Saddam, 69, has been sentenced to death for "wilful killing", part of his indictment for crimes against humanity in his role in ordering the deaths of 148 Shia villagers in the village of Dujail, north of Baghdad, in 1982.
"Long live Iraq. Long live the Iraqi people. God is greater than the occupier," the former strongman declared as he was led away from the dock, trembling, after being forced to stand before the Iraqi High Tribunal.
Saddam's half-brother and intelligence chief Barzan al-Tikriti was also sentenced to death, as was Awad Ahmed al-Bandar, who was chairman of the so-called Revolutionary Court that ordered the Shias executed.
The former vice president, Taha Yassin Ramazan, received life sentence, while three Baath party officials from Dujail received 15 years each, and a fourth, more junior figure, was cleared.
The tribunal's spokesman and chief investigative Judge, Raed al-Juhi, said Saddam's appeal would begin on Monday and its deliberations would last a month, but that no date has been set for the announcement of its final decision.
"The appeal against this sentence will start from tomorrow, and would last for 30 days. The court of appeal has set no timetable to issue its decision," he told reporters at the courthouse after the verdict.
If the appeals court, a nine-member panel of Judges, upholds Abdel Rahman's verdict, Saddam will be hanged within 30 days of its ruling.
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki hailed the verdict, declaring that "Iraq's martyrs can now smile again", but it was criticised by international human rights groups as the product of a flawed trial.
Amnesty International described the trial as a "shabby affair, marred by serious flaws".
Human Rights Watch director for international justice Richard Dicker said the trial should have been conducted by an international court, and called the verdict a "lost opportunity to give a sense of the rule of law".
Sadr City, the main Shia suburb of eastern Baghdad, erupted in joy at the verdict, as around 1,000 people marched, waved flags, denounced Saddam and hailed their hero, radical preacher Moqtada al-Sadr.
"Deliver him to us; we'll execute him ourselves," shouted the crowd.
The rest of the city was locked down by a strict curfew as security forces feared an angry reaction from Saddam's remaining supporters among Iraq's Sunni minority, who were favoured under his 24-year reign.
Iraq's beleaguered military was on war footing for the verdict and a curfew was in force in three flashpoint provinces--the war-torn capital, the sectarian battlefields of Diyala and Saddam's home region of Salaheddin.
Meanwhile, north of Baghdad, in the Sunni town of Dawr, near Saddam's home town Tikrit, scores of protesters gathered to support the deposed president, according to a spokesman for the local security co-ordination centre.
"They chanted 'With our blood, with our souls we redeem you Saddam'," said police spokesman Hamed el-Duri.
In Tikrit, Sheikh Al-Nadawi, head of the Baigat group of tribes, to which Saddam belongs, said: "Saddam lived a hero and will die as a hero. The court was set up by his rivals... It is a historical farce."
The defendants were convicted of ordering the village of Dujail to suffer savage collective punishment after agents of current Prime Minister Maliki's Dawa party tried to kill Saddam there in 1982.
The community's orchards were ripped up and 148 Shia civilians were dragged before a Baath party kangaroo court and sentenced to death.
The Dujail incident still carries a potent political charge more than three-and-a-half years after Saddam was driven from power by US-led invasion, amid ongoing sectarian bloodshed and effective occupation by US forces.
Iraq's Shia majority seized upon the fall of the Sunni dictator and the old elite to seize power and seek vengeance for crimes such as the destruction of Dujail, while the country has slipped into sectarian war.
Many Sunni insurgents fighting the US-backed regime remain loyal to Saddam, and the former dictator's defence team said he had been expecting the death penalty and was in good spirits as he planned his appeal.
"I was among 12 defence lawyers who met Saddam Hussein for four hours on Saturday afternoon. His morale was very high: it was made of steel," Tunisian lawyer Ahmad Siddiq told AFP.
"He told us he was convinced he would get the death sentence and he said 'you have done everything you could but the court was manipulated'," he said.
Sunni armed groups--including the Islamic Army of Iraq, which is made up of former Baath Party cadres and veterans of Saddam's armed forces--have been at the forefront of attacks on US and government forces.
Whether they have reserves of fury yet to unleash may become evident in the aftermath of the verdict.
IRAN WELCOMES VERDICT:
Iran said hanging Saddam Hussein was a just punishment for his "inhuman crimes", but accused the West of arming the former Iraqi dictator against the Islamic Republic, Kuwait and the Iraqi people.
Tehran's arch-enemy, the United States, supplied arms and intelligence to Iraq during its 1980-88 war with Iran, and Iran says European countries supplied materials to Saddam for chemical weapons used on Iranian troops and his own people.