Saddam sentenced to death by Iraqi court
5th November 2006
Sentenced to be hanged: Saddam Hussein
Former dictator Saddam Hussein has today been sentenced to death by hanging after being found guilty of crimes against humanity.
After Iraq's High Tribunal delivered the verdict, the former Iraqi leader shouted "God is great!"
Clashes immediately broke out in north Baghdad's heavily Sunni Azamiyah district where police were battling men with machine guns.
His 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.
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. Two bailiffs lifted Saddam to his feet and he remained standing through the sentencing.
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."
British reaction came swiftly after the verdict. Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said Hussein had been "held to account".
She said in a statement: "I welcome that Saddam Hussein and the other defendants have faced justice and have been held to account for their crimes.
"Appalling crimes were committed by Saddam Hussein's regime, it's right that those accused of such crimes against the Iraqi people should face Iraqi justice."
Mrs Beckett, currently on a visit to India, added: "Today's verdict and sentences by the Iraqi Higher Tribunal come at the end of a trial during which evidence has been offered and challenged in the full glare of media scrutiny."
Shadow Foreign Secretary, William Hague said in a statment: "We congratulate the Iraqi courts on reaching a verdict in such difficult circumstances, and the bravery shown by judges and witnesses in the face of severe violence and intimidation.
"It is important that Saddam Hussein faces justice for his crimes, for the sake of both his many victims and of the future of Iraq and it's people.
"The verdict and sentencing of Saddam are a matter for Iraqi law and the Iraqi people, but they deserve the support of the international community in ensuring that the decisions reached by the court are respected."
Home Secretary John Reid said the verdict was "a sovereign decision by a sovereign nation".
"It is in a sense the ultimate expression of the sovereignty of Iraq.
"They are masters of their own destiny and they have taken a decision today as controllers of that destiny which I think all of us ought to respect."
Asked BBC1's Sunday AM programme over whether he approved of the death sentence having been passed, Mr Reid said: "I think we can have our views on this but I'm not sure that we have a role in this."
He added: "The point is that the Iraqi people have elected a government, they are implementing a system in the midst of very very difficult circumstances.
"With all it's imperfections it's a major advance on anything they have had before."
On the streets of southern Baghdad, Iraqis gathered in large numbers, chanting and waving their arms above their heads.
Some held guns and fired into the air and volleys of gunfire could be heard across the capital.
But in the north there were clashes between police and gunmen in the city's northern Azamiyah district, with at least seven mortar shells fired around the Abu Hanifa mosque, the holiest Sunni shrine in the capital.
In Tikrit, Saddam's hometown, 1,000 people defied the curfew and carried pictures of the city's favourite son through the streets.
Some declared the court a product of the US "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.
DAILY MAIL READERS' COMMENTS
Once the inevitable execution is carried out, his body must be cremated and the ashes scattered to the winds. No burial, no shrine, no trace that he ever existed, except in the minds of those fortunate enough to have survived this tyrant.
- Tim, Leeds, U.K.
*********************************
And people still think we shouldn't have invaded Iraq and instead let this despot continue with his murderous despicable regime.
- John Smith, Luton, England
**********************************
The death sentence is appropriate. In my view no other would do since as long as he was alive and jailed in Iraq there would always be a chance that his supporters would try and free him. Lets hope this will serve as a warning to other murderous dictators that the free democratic world will eventually go after them too.
- Mikel, Manchester
dailymail.co.uk
5th November 2006
Former dictator Saddam Hussein has today been sentenced to death by hanging after being found guilty of crimes against humanity.
After Iraq's High Tribunal delivered the verdict, the former Iraqi leader shouted "God is great!"
Clashes immediately broke out in north Baghdad's heavily Sunni Azamiyah district where police were battling men with machine guns.
His 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.
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. Two bailiffs lifted Saddam to his feet and he remained standing through the sentencing.
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."
British reaction came swiftly after the verdict. Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said Hussein had been "held to account".
She said in a statement: "I welcome that Saddam Hussein and the other defendants have faced justice and have been held to account for their crimes.
"Appalling crimes were committed by Saddam Hussein's regime, it's right that those accused of such crimes against the Iraqi people should face Iraqi justice."
Mrs Beckett, currently on a visit to India, added: "Today's verdict and sentences by the Iraqi Higher Tribunal come at the end of a trial during which evidence has been offered and challenged in the full glare of media scrutiny."
Shadow Foreign Secretary, William Hague said in a statment: "We congratulate the Iraqi courts on reaching a verdict in such difficult circumstances, and the bravery shown by judges and witnesses in the face of severe violence and intimidation.
"It is important that Saddam Hussein faces justice for his crimes, for the sake of both his many victims and of the future of Iraq and it's people.
"The verdict and sentencing of Saddam are a matter for Iraqi law and the Iraqi people, but they deserve the support of the international community in ensuring that the decisions reached by the court are respected."
Home Secretary John Reid said the verdict was "a sovereign decision by a sovereign nation".
"It is in a sense the ultimate expression of the sovereignty of Iraq.
"They are masters of their own destiny and they have taken a decision today as controllers of that destiny which I think all of us ought to respect."
Asked BBC1's Sunday AM programme over whether he approved of the death sentence having been passed, Mr Reid said: "I think we can have our views on this but I'm not sure that we have a role in this."
He added: "The point is that the Iraqi people have elected a government, they are implementing a system in the midst of very very difficult circumstances.
"With all it's imperfections it's a major advance on anything they have had before."
On the streets of southern Baghdad, Iraqis gathered in large numbers, chanting and waving their arms above their heads.
Some held guns and fired into the air and volleys of gunfire could be heard across the capital.
But in the north there were clashes between police and gunmen in the city's northern Azamiyah district, with at least seven mortar shells fired around the Abu Hanifa mosque, the holiest Sunni shrine in the capital.
In Tikrit, Saddam's hometown, 1,000 people defied the curfew and carried pictures of the city's favourite son through the streets.
Some declared the court a product of the US "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.
DAILY MAIL READERS' COMMENTS
Once the inevitable execution is carried out, his body must be cremated and the ashes scattered to the winds. No burial, no shrine, no trace that he ever existed, except in the minds of those fortunate enough to have survived this tyrant.
- Tim, Leeds, U.K.
*********************************
And people still think we shouldn't have invaded Iraq and instead let this despot continue with his murderous despicable regime.
- John Smith, Luton, England
**********************************
The death sentence is appropriate. In my view no other would do since as long as he was alive and jailed in Iraq there would always be a chance that his supporters would try and free him. Lets hope this will serve as a warning to other murderous dictators that the free democratic world will eventually go after them too.
- Mikel, Manchester
dailymail.co.uk