Saddam Hussein Sentenced To Hang
By Aljazeera
05 November 2006
Aljazeera
Saddam Hussein, the former president of Iraq, has been sentenced to death by a Baghdad court after being found guilty of crimes against humanity.
When the judge announced the sentence, Saddam appeared shaken.
However he soon recovered and shouted: "Allahu Akbar!" [God is greatest] and "Long live the nation!"
Saddam was found guilty by the Iraqi High Tribunal on Sunday for ordering the killing of 178 Shia civilians in the town of Dujail in 1982.
The court said that he and his fellow defendants had ordered the villagers' murder after members of Dawa, a Shia political party, tried to kill Saddam in Dujail in 1982.
Saddam's sentence will be automatically appealed and reviewed by a panel of appeal judges, who will decide whether or not to allow a retrial.
If the judgement stands, however, Saddam must be executed within 30 days of the appeals panel delivering its verdict, the chief prosecutor has said.
Saddam, 69 said that he wants to be executed by firing squad. However Iraqi law states that he will be executed by hanging.
Saddam was president of Iraq from 1979 to 2003, when his Sunni-dominated government was deposed by a US-led invasion.
Eleven-month trial
Saddam's half-brother Barzan al-Tikriti, former head of the Iraqi secret police, and Awad Hamed Al-Bander, Saddam's chief judge were also sentenced to death by hanging by the court.
Saddam's eleven-month trial was marked by theatrics by both his defence council and by Saddam and his seven co-defendents.
Taha Yassin Ramdan, the former Iraqi vice president was sentenced to life in prison.
The court also sentenced three of Saddam co-defendent to 15 years in prison for their part in the Dujail killing and acquitted one minor Baath party official.
Lawyer ejected
Ramsey Clark, Saddam's most outspoken American defender and a former US attorney general, was thrown out of the trial on Sunday and accused of insulting the people of Iraq.
Clark, a member of Saddam's defence team and a strident critic of the conduct of his trial at the Iraqi HighTribunal, attended the start of the session but was ejected before Saddam was sentenced to death by hanging.
"Get him out of the hall. He came from America to ridicule the Iraqi people and ridicule the court," Judge Raud Abdel Rahman said. "A bad arrow returns to the chest of its shooter."
After the hearing, chief prosecutor Jaafar al-Mussawi told reporters that the court would file a complaint against Clark with the American bar association, and also accused him of contempt.
"Clark submitted a study containing phrases humiliating to the Iraqi people and subsequently the court had no option but to take a decision to dismiss him from the session," Mussawi said at a news conference.
Since Saddam's arrest, Clark has strenuously argued that the trial constitutes victor's justice and is an abuse of legal principles.
Baghdad tense
Before the verdict was announced, Iraq's government imposed a curfew in Baghdad, the mixed Sunni-Shia province of Diyala and Salahuddin, the province containing Saddam's hometown of Tikrit.
But despite the curfews, Shias had gathered in Baghdad's Sadr City district to celebrate what they hoped would be a guilty verdict.
Meanwhile in and around Tikrit small groups of Saddam's supporters held protests and denounced the court's judgement.
Sheikh Al-Nadawi, the head of the Baigat group of tribes to which Saddam belongs, said: "Saddam lived a hero and will die as a hero. The court was set up by his rivals... It is a historical farce."
Government appeals for calm
On Saturday Nuri al-Maliki, Iraq's prime minister, said that he hoped Saddam would be found guilty, but also asked Iraqis to react calmly to the verdict.
"We hope the sentence matches what this man deserves for what he has done against the Iraqi people. The Iraqi people will express happiness in the way they find appropriate," al-Maliki said.
"We call upon the Iraqi people to be calm, to be disciplined and to express themselves in ways that take into consideration the security challenge and the need to protect the lives of citizens," he added.
© 2003 - 2006 Aljazeera.Net
Leave A Comment
&
Share Your Insights
Get CC HeadlinesOn your Desk Top