Court condemns Saddam Hussein to death
Clutching the Qur'an, Saddam Hussein shouted "long live the Iraqi people" after receiving his death sentencing
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Sunday, 05, Nov 2006 08:10
Former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein has been sentenced to death by hanging for crimes against humanity.
The US-backed Baghdad tribunal ruled that the 69-year-old was guilty of causing the deaths of 148 Shia men in Dujail following a failed assassination attempt in 1982.
A visibly shaken Saddam shouted "Allahu Akbar [God is greatest]" and "long live Iraq, long live the Iraqi people" as he was led from court following the judge's decision.
Death sentences were also given to former chief judge Awad Hamed al-Bander and Saddam's half-brother and ex-intelligence chief Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti.
Former vice president of Iraq Taha Yassin Ramadan was sentenced to life imprisonment and three other Ba'ath officials were handed 15-year jail terms.
The seventh defendant, Mohammed Azawi Ali, was acquitted.
Under Iraqi law, an appeal is automatically lodged when a death sentence or life imprisonment is ordered, with any execution likely to be delayed until the new year.
The former leader, who was deposed following 24 years of brutal rule after the US-led Iraq invasion in 2003, has previously said he wants to face a firing squad rather than the hangman that the Iraqi constitution stipulates.
The trial of Saddam and his co-defendants has been dogged by walkouts, boycotts and hunger strikes, with the original judge being replaced after suggesting that Saddam was not a dictator.
A full curfew is in place in Baghdad with the Iraqi army on full alert to prevent violence erupting in the wake of today's verdict.