Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has been convicted of crimes against humanity by a Baghdad court and sentenced to death by hanging.

He was found guilty over his role in the killing of 148 people in the mainly Shia town of Dujail in 1982.

 

His half brother Barzan al-Tikriti was also sentenced to death, as was Iraq's former chief judge Awad Hamed al-Bander. Former vice-president Taha Yassin Ramadan got life in jail and three others received 15 year prison terms. Another co-defendant, Baath party official Mohammed Azawi Ali, was acquitted.

 

When called to court, Saddam Hussein, dressed in his usual dark suit and white shirt and carrying a Koran, walked to his customary seat and sat down. Judge Rauf Abdel Rahman ordered Saddam Hussein to stand while he read out the verdict, but the former president defiantly refused to do so and had to be moved from his seat by court attendants. As the judge began reading the death sentence Saddam Hussein shouted out "Allahu Akbar!" (God is Greatest) and "Long live Iraq! Long live the Iraqi people! Down with the traitors!"

 

The former leader looked shocked and furious as the sentence was passed, and continued to shout, denouncing the court, the judge and the US-led occupation force in Iraq. But the BBC's world affairs editor John Simpson said that after his tirade, as he was led away from the courtroom, Saddam Hussein seemed to have a small smile on his face. "It was as if he was thinking 'I've come here and done what I intended to do'," our correspondent said.

 

Celebratory gunfire

 

Shortly after the verdict was announced celebratory gunfire could be heard across Baghdad. The whole city of six million people has been placed under a 12-hour daytime curfew that bans all vehicle and pedestrian traffic amid fears of violence from Saddam Hussein's Sunni Arab supporters.

 

The government cancelled all army leave and the city's civilian airport has been closed. Three nearby provinces, including Salahuddin, which contains Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit, are also under curfew. Almost three years since Saddam Hussein was captured, soaring sectarian violence has brought Iraq to the brink of civil war.

 

Few Iraqis think the trial verdict will ease conflict, the BBC's Andrew North in Baghdad says. Even those Iraqis who want to see their former leader dead do not believe his execution would make things any better, our correspondent says.

 

'Victors' justice'

 

Many critics have dismissed the trial as a form of victors' justice, given the close attention the US has paid to it. Lawyers for Saddam Hussein have also accused the government of interfering in the proceedings - a complaint backed by US group Human Rights Watch. And the former leader's lawyers have attacked the timing of the planned verdict, which comes days before the US votes in mid-term elections.

 

US President George W Bush's Republican Party is at risk of losing control of Congress in part because of voter dissatisfaction over its handling of the Iraq conflict. In a televised speech on Saturday, Nouri Maliki, Iraq's Shia Arab prime minister, said he hoped Saddam Hussein would get "what he deserves" for "crimes against the Iraqi people".

 

Ahead of the verdict Mr Maliki called for calm, saying that Iraqis should mark it in a way that "does not risk their lives".

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6117910.stm

Well thats a shocker.

It certainly is. I don't think he should get the death penalty though. I'm strongly opposed to that all together.

A man who killed this many people, of the country he was supposed to lead, deserves nothing but the death penalty.

 

I don't think its much of a shocker, it was expected for him to get this.

I expected it too but I still dont agree with it, its against my faith.

A man who killed this many people, of the country he was supposed to lead, deserves nothing but the death penalty.

 

I don't think its much of a shocker, it was expected for him to get this.

 

 

I agree with you.

Mors certa, hora incerta. :)

I expected it too but I still dont agree with it' date=' its against my faith.[/quote']

 

 

1 man made his country hungry, made his country from something into nothing, ordered to destroy whole towns (including the people), etc.

 

But you would let that one man live on ?

This will make things worse thou...

 

*bangs head*

It's not for me to judge.

He deserve it and I hope they execute him quickly

Thats rich coming from you.

Executing him won't solve anything.

In some ways it would be better to let him rot in jail.

Executing him won't solve anything.

In some ways it would be better to let him rot in jail.

 

 

His death will make many people feel fine, I'm one of them

Just goes to show what a hypocrite you are - you slate israel for fighting terrorist yet your ok with this. Many more people will die because of this decision.

His death will make many people feel fine' date=' I'm one of them[/quote']

 

Maybe, but it won't do anything to help the Iraqis.

Maybe' date=' but it won't do anything to help the Iraqis.[/quote']

 

 

That's not the point of giving someone a death penalty. The point is that this dangerous man who killed so many people is dead, no more Saddam Hussein, never again.

The death penalty exists as punishment designed to be a deterrent - It doesnt work!

 

America had the chance to show the muslim world its good, lenient side and instead they chose to show its the same old highschool bully.

It's not a surprise, must admit didn't expect it to go any other way.

 

That said, I'm against the death penalty, I'd let him rot in jail too. Specially with all the violence and chaos which will probably come because of this sentence..

Shame that this is now sort of being used to justify why our country went into Iraq and why it's now a big pile of rubble.

 

He shouldn't have been sentenced to death and I really hope he wins his appeal against the hanging but ends up spending his life in prison.

 

How can George Bush or Tony Blair even agree with the death sentence?

It doesn't seem very Christian to me.......suprise, suprise.

That's not the point of giving someone a death penalty. The point is that this dangerous man who killed so many people is dead' date=' no more Saddam Hussein, never again.[/quote']

 

He's already done his worst, killing him won't help anything at all. In fact, it will probably instigate even more violence in the country.

 

Its a very convienent execution, though.

What about those of his accomplices and business partners?

Some of the very Neo-Cons that still control the White House today and armed Saddam and enabled him to build up a power base in the first place, but they will milk this for all it's worth before Tuesday's mid-terms.

Maybe' date=' but it won't do anything to help the Iraqis.[/quote']

 

 

When they execute him, then everyone will see the end of evey tyrant and who will take the right of all dead people and their families which Saddam killed them?

It's not a surprise, must admit didn't expect it to go any other way.

 

That said, I'm against the death penalty, I'd let him rot in jail too. Specially with all the violence and chaos which will probably come because of this sentence..

 

Put him in jail the rest of his life is most brutal

 

The execuation is mercy and for the violence, the proverb says : Bitter pills may have blessed effects.

I've always been against death penalty, no matter if it's a tyrant like Saddam Hussein or a killer or a rapist or whatever.. To me, the biggest punishment is still letting someone rot in jail - killing him will only set him free!

 

I can't wait until the day when death penalty will be forbidden all across the world. It's such a mediaeval thing to do, and our decade should know better.. I doubt that day will come though..