4 novembre, 2006 20:14

Saddam Hussein sentenced to death

Last Updated: Sunday, November 5, 2006 | 9:16 AM ET

CBC News

Saddam Hussein was found guilty of crimes against humanity on Sunday and sentenced to hang for the 1982 killing of 148 Shia Muslims in a town north of Baghdad.

The former Iraqi president shouted "God is Great" and "You are servants of the occupiers — you are traitors," before Judge Rauf Abdel Rahman finished reading the verdict and sentence.

Iraqis celebrate as the death sentence verdict for former leader Saddam Hussein is announced, in Baghdad's Shia enclave of Sadr City. The poster shows cleric Mohammed Sadiq al-Sadr, who was killed by Saddam's regime.

(Karim Kadim/Associated Press)

"Life for us and death to our enemies, death to the enemies of the people. Long live this glorious nation and death to the enemies," Saddam said as four guards took him out of the courtroom.

His chief lawyer later issued a statement, saying Saddam wanted Iraqis to reject the sectarian violence that could increase in the wake of the verdict.

"The president said that 'Saddam Hussein won't be defeated," lawyer Khalil al-Dulaimi told the Associated Press. "He said the people will remain strong and steadfast."

The former dictator's trial had heard that he ordered the 148 executions in revenge for an assassination attempt in Dujail, 65 kilometres north of Baghdad.

Half-brother sentenced to death

Two of Saddam's senior aides, including his half-brother Barzan al-Tikriti and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, the head of Iraq's former Revolutionary Court, were also sentenced to hang.

Iraq's former Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan was convicted of premeditated murder and sentenced to life in prison.

Three defendants were sentenced to 15 years in prison for torture and premeditated murder. Abdullah Kazim Ruwayyid and his son Mizhar Abdullah Ruwayyid were party officials in Dujail, along with Ali Dayih Ali. They were believed responsible for the Dujail arrests.

Another co-defendant, Baath party official Mohammed Azawi Ali, was acquitted.

Some feared the verdicts could intensify Iraq's sectarian violence after a trial that stretched over nine months. Clashes immediately broke out Sunday in north Baghdad's heavily Sunni Azamiyah district.

Elsewhere in the capital, celebratory gunfire rang out.

"This government will be responsible for the consequences, with the deaths of hundreds, thousands or even hundreds of thousands, whose blood will be shed," Salih al-Mutlaq, a Sunni political leader, told the al-Arabiya satellite television station.

In Saddam's hometown of Tikrit, about 1,000 people defied the curfew that began on Saturday and carried pictures of the former leader through the streets.

But many Iraqis cheered the verdict in the predominantly Shia district of east Baghdad, known as Sadr City. During his 24 years as president, Saddam favoured his Sunni minority for top government jobs and persecuted the Shia majority and the Kurds.

Lawyers plan appeal

Saddam's chief lawyer condemned Saddam's trial as a "farce," claiming the verdict handed down by the U.S.-sponsored panel of judges was planned. He said the defence team would appeal within 30 days.

The death sentences automatically go to a nine-judge appeals panel, which has unlimited time to review the case. If the verdicts and sentences are upheld, the executions must be carried out within 30 days.

"Since day one, we said the trial was politically motivated 100 per cent and that it's completely illegal," defence laywer Al-Dulaimi said. "The defence voice was not allowed to be heard at all."

Al-Dulaimi also said that the security situation in Baghdad was "very dangerous."

"Iranian intelligence and U.S. invaders are patrolling around. There's nobody else on the streets," he said. "Baghdad looks like a ghost town."

On Saturday, Iraqi authorities ordered both cars and people off the streets of Baghdad and three surrounding provinces ahead of the verdict.

Throughout the capital, people were scrambling to stock up on up on food and water as authorities set up additional roadblocks, stepped-up patrols and cancelled all leave for Iraqi troops.

Saddam Hussein's regime was toppled in April 2003 during a campaign led by U.S. forces, on the assertion that Iraq possessed hidden stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction.

After an intense manhunt, the former dictator was captured by American soldiers in December 2003 at a farmhouse in the town of Adwar, not far from his hometown of Tikrit.