DPA: Saddam sentenced to death by hanging- PMer (Complete coverage of Saddam's verdict)

Saddam sentenced to death by hanging

Baghdad (dpa) - In a verdict which brought Iraqis out into the streets in celebration, ousted president Saddam Hussein was served a sentence of death by hanging Sunday for crimes against humanity.
The Supreme Iraqi Criminal Tribunal found Saddam and six of his former top government aides guilty of ordering the killing of 148 Shiites in the town of Dujail in 1982 in retaliation for an attempt on Saddam‘s life.
In the verdicts, not only Saddam, but also his half-brother and former intelligence chief Barzan al-Tikriti and Awad Ahmed al-Bandar, one of Saddam‘s former aides, were also sentenced to death.
Former Iraqi vice-president Taha Yassin Ramadan was sentenced to life imprisonment, while three other co-defendants were served 15-year prison terms.
Mohammad al-Azawy, a co-defendant, was found not guilty of the charges and released.
Defiant to the end as he faced sentencing, Saddam initially refused to stand as the judge issued the verdict.
The former Iraqi dictator then finally took to his feet, shouting repeatedly in a firm level voice: "Long live the Umma (nation). Down with the traitors. Allahu Akbar (God is great)! We are the people of (this country)."
The outburst forced the judge to raise his voice over Saddam‘s in order to continue reading out the numerous points in the verdict.
Saddam has the right to an appeal, a judicial source had earlier told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa. However, if the appellate chamberof the court upholds the verdict, the sentence must then be carried out within 30 days.
As the co-defendants heard their sentences, they also started shouting "Allahu Akbar" in unison, and chanting "God is greater than the people who support injustice."
Sentencing in the first of Saddam‘s criminal trials began earlier Sunday in Baghdad.
During the session - number 41 of the trial which had initially began October 19, 2005 - Saddam‘s lawyers were all present in court. Former US attorney general Ramsey Clark, however, was thrown out ofcourt by the head judge, who claimed that Clark had "slammed" the Iraqi people.
Following the session, chief prosecutor Jaafar al-Mousawy held apress conference where he declared that in case Saddam‘s verdict is upheld, the prosecution in the al-Anfal trial will automatically be brought to a close.
Also, as to Saddam‘s demand that he be executed by firing squade, al-Mousaway said that "shooting violates Iraq‘s death penalty law."
Kurdish leader Jalal Talibani commented in the wake of the verdict that the sentence is "fair." Talibani refused to give furthercomments to the press.
Addressing the Iraqi nation, however, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki was more outspoken. Al-Maliki called the verdict "a victory for the victims of (Saddam‘s) system" and "an end to a black era."
"The sentencing of Saddam is a lesson to all criminals," said al-Maliki. "A lesson to anyone who has violated the rights of the citizens. This humiliating end is (sufficient) for anyone who subjected the country to injustice, dissension and irrational wars."
Al-Maliki added that he was surprised at foreign states which had tried to interfere in order for Saddam to be released. He said that he deemed Saddam "the worst Iraqi president ever" and his former Baath party "responsible for all crimes."
"But now Saddam and his party are things of the past," he said."It is a verdict that all Iraqis are entitled to celebrate," added the premier.
"Now, we carry on in rebuilding an Iraq without mass graveyards, an Iraq where all citizens are equal in rights and where the law is above all," said al-Maliki.
Al-Maliki had on Saturday asked Iraqis to remain calm as Saddam‘s sentence was announced. However, after the trial, pictures of cheering Iraqis flooded pan-Arab TV channels.
In one incident, a group of men and children were seen huddled in a coffee shop glued to a TV screen as they chanted "Allahu Akbar." The moments of hushed silence as the verdict was pronounced were quickly followed by cheering as the men stood up to applaud.
In Baghdad streets, men and women were seen dancing around, and Shiite youth carrying posters of Ayatollah al-Sistani took to the streets in celebration.
A man on the street told Al-Arabiya network that the "execution" of the sentence is a must now. "They have to really execute him," the middle-aged man said.
Hours before the session began, security was heightened in and around the court. A state of emergency was declared in the capital, authorities said. Baghdad‘s airport was also closed soon after dawn, and all flights to and from the city were cancelled during the morning.
Iraqi authorities had imposed a 24-hour blanket curfew over Baghdad and the northern cities of Mosul, Baquba, and Saddam‘s hometown Tikrit on Sunday to avoid any violence around the announcement of the trial verdict.

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051429 GMT Nov 06

Reported and Written by PAKINAM AMER, edited by the amazing Cork editors.

** DPA does not byline news spots/stories, only news features but I'm particularly proud of my coverage of Saddam's verdict. That's why I chose to include it here amid my bylined copies.