Dictator's trial verdict sets off anger, celebrations

Saddam, 2 co-defendants sentenced to hang for Dujail killings.

The Associated Press

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Saddam Hussein was found guilty of crimes against humanity on Sunday -- and sentenced to hang.

The verdict set off celebrations in the streets of some Iraqi Shiite Muslim communities in Baghdad-- and anger among Sunni Muslims, who long looked to Saddam as their benefactor and protector.

Saddam trembled as the verdict was read and was immediately defiant: "God is great!" he shouted, according to Associated Press correspondent Hamza Hendawi in Baghdad. "Long live the people and death to their enemies. Long live the glorious nation, and death to its enemies!"

Saddam was convicted in the 1982 killings of 148 people in a single Shiite town. He, his half brother and another senior official in his regime were sentenced to death by the Iraqi High Tribunal.

End of an epoch

The nine-month trial was one of the most highly publicized and heavily reported trials of its kind since the Nuremberg tribunals for members of Adolf Hitler's Nazi regime and its slaughter of 6 million Jews in the World War II Holocaust.

It was watched throughout Iraq and the Middle East as much for entertainment as for substance. Saddam was kicked out of the courtroom several times for his political harangues. His half brother and co-defendant, Barzan Ibrahim, once showed up in long underwear and sat with his back to judges.

How Saddam took it

Al-Dulaimi, Saddam's lawyer, said his client called on Iraqis to reject sectarian violence and called on them to refrain from taking revenge on U.S. invaders.

"His message to the Iraqi people was 'pardon and do not take revenge on the invading nations and their people'," al-Dulaimi said, quoting Saddam. "The president also asked his countrymen to 'unify in the face of sectarian strife."'

Repercussions

Will the verdict make Iraq more or less stable? Some feared it could make things worse when it comes to the sectarian violence that has pushed the country to the brink of civil war. In north Baghdad's heavily Sunni Azamiyah district, clashes began immediately. But 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.

Sunnis and Shiites are different Muslim sects. In Iraq, under Saddam's rule, Sunnis has most of the power and Shiites were heavily persecuted. Shiites control the current Iraqi government.

Details on the charges

Saddam and his seven co-defendants were on trial for a wave of revenge killings carried out in the city of Dujail following a 1982 assassination attempt on the former dictator. Al-Maliki's Islamic Dawa party, then an underground opposition, has claimed responsibility for organizing the attempt on Saddam's life.

In the streets of Dujail, a Tigris River city of 84,000, people celebrated and burned pictures of their former tormentor as the verdict was read.

What's next

Saddam's chief lawyer, Khalil al-Dulaimi, condemned the trial as a "farce" and said defense attorneys 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.

A court official said that the appeals process was likely to take three to four weeks once the formal paperwork was submitted.

Other verdicts

In addition to the former Iraqi dictator and Barzan Ibrahim, his former intelligence chief and half brother, the Iraqi High Tribunal convicted and sentenced Awad Hamed al-Bandar, the head of Iraq's former Revolutionary Court, to death by hanging. 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.

AMERICAN REACTION

U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad: "Although the Iraqis may face difficult days in the coming weeks, closing the book on Saddam and his regime is an opportunity to unite and build a better future."

The White House praised the Iraqi judicial system and denied the U.S. had been "scheming" to have the verdict announced two days before American midterm elections.

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WORLD REACTION

Many European nations voiced opposition to the death sentences in the case, including France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden. A leading Italian opposition figure called on the continent to press for Saddam's sentence to be commuted to life imprisonment.