Beware, it's a long read:

- Story taken from the AP from an MSN Newslink -

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraq's High Tribunal on Sunday found Saddam Hussein guilty of crimes against humanity and sentenced him to hang for the 1982 killing of 148 Shiites in the city of Dujail. The visibly shaken former leader shouted "God is great!"

Saddam's half brother and former intelligence chief Barzan Ibrahim, and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, head of the former Revolutionary Court, were sentenced to join Saddam on the gallows for the Dujail killings after an unsuccessful assassination attempt during a Saddam visit to the city 35 miles north of Baghdad.

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.

Chief prosecutor Jaafar al-Moussawi told reporters that the Anfal trial now in progress for Saddam and others alleged role in gassing and killing Kurds would continue while the appeals process is underway. But if the appellate judges uphold the death sentence, the Anfal proceedings and other cases would be halted and Saddam hanged.

Al-Moussawi said Saddam would be hanged if the sentence were upheld, despite his demand that he be shot by a firing squad.

A court official told The Associated Press that the appeals process was likely to take three to four weeks once the formal paperwork was submitted.

Clashes, celebrations
Clashes immediately broke out in north Baghdad's heavily Sunni Azamiyah district where police were battling men with machine guns. At least seven mortar shells slammed to earth around the Abu Hanifa mosque, the holiest Sunni shrine in the capital. There was no immediate word on casualties.

Celebratory gunfire rang out elsewhere in Baghdad, and the people in Sadr City, the capital's Shiite slum, celebrated in the streets, calling out "Where are you Saddam? We want to fight you."

Breathing heavily as he ran along the streets, 35-year-old Abu Sinan said, "This is an unprecedented feeling of happiness...nothing matches it, no festival nor marriage nor birth matches it. The verdict says Saddam must pay the price for murdering tens of thousands of Iraqis."

A jubilant crowd of young men carried pictures of radical anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and handed out candy to children.

In Tikrit, Saddam's hometown, 1,000 people defied the curfew and carried pictures of the city's favorite son through the streets.

Some declared the court a product of the U.S. "occupation forces" and decried the verdict.

"By our souls, by our blood we sacrifice for you Saddam" and "Saddam your name shakes America."

People were celebrating in the streets of Dujail, a Tigris River city of 84,000, as the verdict was read. They burned pictures of their former tormentor.

Celebratory gunfire also rang out in Kurdish neighborhoods across the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, where taxi driver Khatab Ahmed sat on a mattress in his living room to watch trial coverage with his wife and six children.

"Thank God I lived to see the day when the criminals received their punishment," the 40-year-old exclaimed on hearing of Saddam's death sentence.

His brother and uncle were arrested by Saddam's security forces in the 1980s and disappeared forever. Two cousins died in a 1991 Kurdish uprising.

'An opportunity to unite'
The United States Embassy immediately issued a statement under the name of Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, who said the verdicts "demonstrate the commitment of the Iraqi people to hold them (Saddam and his co-defendants) accountable."

"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," Khalilzad said.

Saddam's chief lawyer Khalil al-Dulaim told AP his client called on Iraqis to reject the sectarian violence ripping the country apart and to "not take revenge" on U.S. invaders.

"The message from President Saddam to his people came during a meeting in Baghdad this morning, just before the so-called Iraqi court issued its verdict in his trial," al-Dulaimi said.

British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett praised the verdict by an Iraqi court. “The evidence against him has been heard in full court, it has been tested in full court, and their verdict has been given in a court of the people against whom his crimes were committed,” she said.

After the verdict was read, a trembling Saddam yelled out, "Long live the people, and death to their enemies. Long live the glorious nation, and death to its enemies!"


He initially refused Chief Judge Raouf Adbul-Rahman's order to rise to hear the verdict and sentence. Two bailiffs lifted Saddam to his feet, and he remained standing but turned to one guard, telling him to stop twisting his arm.

Former Vice President and Saddam deputy Taha Yassin Ramadan was sentence 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 Dujail, along with Ali Dayih Ali. They were believed responsible for the Dujail arrests.


Mohammed Azawi Ali, a former Dujail Baath Party official, was acquitted for lack of evidence and immediately freed.

Before the trial began, one of Saddam's lawyers, former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, was ejected from the courtroom after handing the judge a memorandum in which he called the Saddam trial a "travesty."

Abdul-Rahman pointed to Clark and said in English, "Get out."

'A lot of incriminating evidence'
The trial proceedings were shown on Iraqi and pan-Arab satellite television channels with a 20-minute delay. Ahead of the verdicts, several channels aired documentaries about Saddam's crackdowns on Kurds and Shiites. They also aired videotape of mass graves being uncovered after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Al-Masai television, run by the prominent Shiite Dawa party, played solemn music as it scrolled through snapshots of Iraqis who went missing under Saddam's 23-year rule.

Another Shiite channel, al-Furat, aired archive footage of Saddam from the 1980s proclaiming, "Everyone stands against the revolution, whether they are 100 or 2,000 or 10,000, I will chop their heads off and this doesn't shake a hair of me at all."

U.S. officials associated with the tribunal said Saddam's repeated courtroom outbursts during the nine-month trial may have played a key part in his conviction.

They cited his admission in a March 1 hearing that he had ordered the trial of 148 Shiites who were eventually executed, insisting that doing so was legal because they were suspected in an assassination attempt against him. "Where is the crime? Where is the crime?" he asked, standing before the panel of five judges.

Later in the same session, he argued that his co-defendants must be released and that because he was in charge, he alone must be tried. His outburst came a day after the prosecution presented a presidential decree with a signature they said was Saddam's approving death sentences for the 148 Shiites, their most direct evidence against him.

About 50 of those sentenced by "The Revolutionary Court" died during interrogation before they could go to the gallows. Some of those hanged were juveniles.

"Every time they (defendants) rose and spoke, they provided a lot of incriminating evidence," said one of the U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject. "Saddam thought he had all the right answers, when in fact he was helping the court establish "command responsibility."

Under Saddam, Iraq's large bureaucracy showed consistent tendency to document government orders, policies and minutes of meetings. That, according to the U.S. officials, helped the prosecution produce more than 30 documents that clearly established the chair of command under Saddam an in relations to the campaign against residents of Dujail.

One document gave the names of every one from Dujail banished to a desert detention camp in southern Iraq. Another, prepared by a close Saddam aide, gave the president a blow by blow account of the punitive measures taken against the people of Dujail following the failed attempt on Saddam's life.

Saddam's trial had from the outset appeared to reflect the turmoil and violence prevailing in Iraq since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion toppled the former president.

One of Saddam's lawyers was assassinated the day after the trial's opening session on Oct. 19, last year. Two more were later assassinated and a fourth one fled the country.

In January, chief judge Rizgar Amin, a Kurd, resigned after complaints by Shiite politicians that he had failed to keep control of court proceedings. He, in turn, complained of political interference in the trial. Another Kurd, Raouf Abdul-Rahman, replaced Amin.

Hearings were frequently disrupted by outbursts from Saddam and Ibrahim, with the two raging against what they said was the illegitimacy of the court, their bad treatment in the U.S.-run facility where they are being held and the lack of protection of their defense attorneys.

The defense lawyers contributed to the chaos in the courtroom by staging several boycotts.

2006 The Associated Press.
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I say it's about time for this creature be put down, but I thought they would've picked a (more?) humane way to execute him. - (such as Lethal injection, electricution)


Any thoughts/comments?

Haha...hanging... That's great.

cool! even tho i dont beleive in hell...let him burn

Now there's a few more I can think of.

bush has to be the next one

Exactly, and Mugabe and of course the list goes on.

Even with Saddam dead by execution, I doubt the situation in Iraq will improve to the point where a stable government can be formed in the next 365 days. I predict the sectarian violence will go on for a time in Iraq until it's divided two or three ways.

True dat.

I found it funny that the verdict came on the eve of elections in the US.

Anyways good verdict, but like others said theres many more who need the same.

Saddam > American Occupation.

At least everything was SO much better when saddam used to be the ruler. Look at Iraq now , It's a jungle.

America should keep their own business and leave the world alone.

yeaah

So true. Saddam may have done inhuman things but in the global war against terrorism he was more of an asset than a liability. Difference in religion and/or ethnicity is the cause of most wars and he did what he could to keep Iraq secular, to stop the different groups from rebelling and causing havoc. This is what's happening now, and it's only sowing more hatred towards the western world, creating more breeding grounds for terrorists.

just catch Osama

Do we even know if he's still alive?

WORD. Thanks!

now i'm not to "up to date" on world news like this. But if i'm not mistaken, wasn't Sadam like brutally killing innocent people? If that were the case then America, and everyone else who wanted to get involved, had every right to do so. Seriously, thats like saying the countries who were involved in WWII got themselves involved wrongfully for going in and trying to save the jews from Hitler.... Germany as a country was thriving greatly with Hitler's rule. Much like Iraq with Sadam. But still, a thriving economy doesn't mean **** when you're murdering your own people.

And that's my 2 cents.... take it, or leave it

Except Germany was the aggressor, invading other countries. The countries involved didn't have a choice to fight the war. Even America's involvement was an act of retaliation (they didn't officially enter the war until Pearl Harbor).

Of course Saddam deserved to be overthrown, that's not the point. America went into this war blindly (as the aggressor), without taking into account the consequences getting rid of Saddam would have. The war simply wasn't justified. You wanted to "save" the Iraqi people? It hasn't happened, Iraq is a more dangerous place to live in than ever. You wanted to bring democracy to Iraq? Not gonna work with all the ethnic/religious groups who would die for their own autonomous region. You were scared of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction? Well, we all know how that turned out.

Saddam's hanging will be a small bandaid for this now gaping wound in the Middle East.

i completely understand what you are saying Kworb. Maybe americans did jump into this "war" a little too prematurely. But when you have someone who is ruling a country as maniacal as Sadam, then what were we suppose to do? It's like, our hands were tied. Now that Sadam is out of the picture, i do expect to see some changes. No, it won't happen overnight. But eventually I think it'll all work out for the better

they should hang bush too!

Our main reason to go into Iraq was because the Bush Administration/"Intelligence" still had reasons to believe of WOMD were still in existance. (Even after the UN sent down investigators into the country speculating that there were none, and 24 hours before the attack when Saddam offered Bush to allow US military to come into that country to see for themselves.) Now, the reason for going to war in Iraq over oil, and Bush's venegence for what his father didn't do when he was president are horribly exaggerated by many, which in the end turn up to be false. (And sometimes botched excuses to attack the Administration/gov't.) Bush was in great intention to protect the US lives (if not the world) from another 9/11, he and his crew just failed completely. So now the alleged reason why we're still over there is to restore Iraq, and bring a peaceful and humane ordered gov't to the country instead of the threatening chaotic way of life and unhuman dictatorship that's currently roaming around that land. (Which I kind of support seeing as a majority of that nation still wants that goal, but good god the innocent civilian/soldier casulaties are really upsetting for me/anyone else who has a heart and soul.) And yes, the process has and appears from at least the media's images to have not been going so smoothly lately as it has been managed poorly. (Which isn't necessarily the Us' 100% fault, as these specific violent rebelling groups in Iraq are what is contributing to all these rising numbers of casualties.) It's been a huge disaster, which has cost 1000s of lives(For both Iraq and US), and billions of dollars in debts for the US. (Which has been assumed that'll it cost us around a trillion dollars by the time this war is over)

The reason why Saddam is currently being persecuted for is for his crimes against humanity. (More In particular genocide such as what he did in the Late 1980s to a small village of a 100-some people.)