Ousted Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was sentenced to death by hanging on Sunday after being found guilty of crimes against humanity in ordering the deaths of 148 Shi’ite villagers following an assassination attempt on his life in 1982 by gunmen from Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s Shi’ite Dawa party in the town of Dujail.
Judge Rauf Rasheed Abdel Rahman ordered bailiffs at the Iraqi high tribunal to force Saddam to stand before the court as, visibly trembling, the former strongman attempted to shout down the verdict.
”Make him stand,” barked Rahman, as Saddam begged the guards: ”Don’t bend my arms. Don’t bend my arms.”
Nevertheless, a court official held Saddam’s hands behind his back as Rahman, shouting to be heard over the defendant’s protests, declared: ”The highest penalty should be implemented.”
As he was led away, his arms still pinioned, he declared: ”Long live Iraq. Long live the Iraqi people. God is greater than the occupier.”
Saddam’s half-brother and intelligence chief Barzan al-Tikriti was also sentenced to death, as was Awad Ahmed al-Bandar, who was convicted as the president of the kangaroo court that ordered the Shi’ites executed.
Former Iraqi vice-president Taha Yassin Ramadan was sentenced to life in prison for crimes against humanity. Prosecutors had recommended death for Ramadan.
Three Ba’ath Party officials on trial with Saddam were sentenced to 15 years in jail for wilful killing. The judge also sentenced them to seven years each for torture but they will serve the sentences concurrently. A fourth junior official was cleared.
The court adjourned after passing the sentences.
Fearing the historic verdict might trigger fresh sectarian violence, Iraq’s government imposed curfews on Sunday and cancelled army leave.
Al-Maliki has called for Saddam to be executed quickly, saying he should get ”what he deserves” for killing, torturing or jailing hundreds of Iraqis.
Iraqis, scarred by three decades of Saddam’s rule until he was ousted in a United States-led invasion in 2003, were following the trial’s conclusion with anticipation around their televisions.
A Shi’ite television station asked residents in the Shi’ite stronghold of Sadr City not to fire shots in celebration into the air. When Saddam’s two sons were killed in a US raid in 2003, dozens were killed by celebratory shots.
Saddam’s lawyers said the ousted president had told them he was ready to die ”with honour and with no fear”.
”If he is guilty, he deserves the death penalty,” Ali Hassan, who testified against Saddam last year, told Reuters in Dujail before the sentence was passed. ”The law must take its course.”
Saddam’s lawyers told Reuters they chatted with him for more than three hours on Saturday, saying he was in high spirits and talked about mounting US military losses and the insurgency.
”I will die with honour and with no fear, with pride for my country and my Arab nation, but the US occupiers will leave in humiliation and defeat,” they quoted Saddam as saying. ”They will see rivers of blood for years to come. It will dwarf Vietnam.”
A death sentence or life imprisonment generates an automatic appeal, delaying any execution by months at least. Saddam has said he wants to face a military firing squad, not the hangman.
The conviction may be a timely lift for US President George Bush before Tuesday’s US elections, when Republicans could lose control of Congress, partly in a backlash over the Iraq war.
US officials have dismissed suggestions by Saddam’s lawyers that the verdict was timed with the elections in mind.
Many of the Sunni insurgents fighting the US-backed regime remain loyal to Saddam’s memory. Last month, for example, tribal sheikhs paraded outside Kirkuk brandishing portraits of their deposed leader and demanding his restoration.
Such armed groups — including the Islamic Army of Iraq, which is made up of former Ba’ath 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. — Reuters, AFP