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The Iraqi Special Tribunal sentenced former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and two of his co-defendants to death in a case charging that they ordered the execution of 148 innocent people in a botched 1982 assassination attempt.
In their verdict, the court made a clear distinction between high-ranking government officials who ordered the attacks and lower-level officials forced to carry them out.
As his sentence was read, Saddam aggressively yelled "God is greater!" to Judge Raouf Abdul. Rahman read the sentence: death for murder, 10 years for forcible deportation, 10 years for torture.
"Long live the Iraqi people, damnation for the damned," Saddam told the panel of judges. "You are the servants of the colonizers."
His half-brother, Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti, the former head of intelligence, and Awad Hamad al-Bandir, former head of the Iraqi Revolutionary Court, also were sentenced to death by hanging.
Bandir kept shouting "God is Great" repeatedly over the reading of the verdict.
Taha Yassin Ramadan, Saddam's vice president at the time the regime fell, was sentenced to life. Abdullah Kathim Ruwaid, his son, Mizhar Abdullah Kathim Ruwaid and Ali Dayih Ali - all local Baath Party officials in 1982 when someone shot at Saddam’s convoy during his visit to the mostly Shiite city of Dujail - received a 15-year sentence.
One defendant, a lower-ranking Baath official in the city of Dujail, where the case centered upon, was released immediately.
Seven guards surrounded Saddam, who wore a suit and carried a Koran, as he entered the courtroom. He initially refused to stand up as the verdict was being read, only doing so after two guards forced him up.
Some of those in the visitor gallery were reprimanded by the judge for cheering too loudly. In Baghdad's mostly Shiite neighborhoods, there was rapid gunfire more than a half-hour after the verdict was read. In Saddam’s hometown of Tikrit, protestors immediately took to the streets.
In a statement, U.S. envoy Zalmay Khalilzad said: "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. As the Iraqi people move forward, the United States will support them in their efforts to build a just and democratic society."
The court adjourned immediately after reading the verdicts without elaborating on how it reached them.
The nation braced itself for what some feared would be a new round of violence by Saddam's supporters in an already turbulent nation.
Indeed, all of the nation's security forces were ordered to work, and the government issued a curfew. Others hoped it would rejuvenate hopes in the country's national government and judicial system.
The verdicts were decided by a five-judge panel who read their written statements to each defendant, beginning with Mohammed Azawi Ali, who was immediately cleared of all charges. Many had agreed that prosecution had presented the weakest case against Ali.
The trial, which began in October 2005, charged that Saddam and his cohorts rounded up innocent residents of Dujail, took them off to camps and killed and tortured - all in response to an apparent assassination attempt against Saddam. And they said large parts of the orchards in the city were razed in the search for attempted assassins, in some cases ruining their farming livelihood. Saddam was visiting the town in 1982 when someone fired on his convoy.
In their verdict, the court made a clear distinction between high-ranking government officials who ordered the attacks and lower-level officials forced to carry them out.
As his sentence was read, Saddam aggressively yelled "God is greater!" to Judge Raouf Abdul. Rahman read the sentence: death for murder, 10 years for forcible deportation, 10 years for torture.
"Long live the Iraqi people, damnation for the damned," Saddam told the panel of judges. "You are the servants of the colonizers."
His half-brother, Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti, the former head of intelligence, and Awad Hamad al-Bandir, former head of the Iraqi Revolutionary Court, also were sentenced to death by hanging.
Bandir kept shouting "God is Great" repeatedly over the reading of the verdict.
Taha Yassin Ramadan, Saddam's vice president at the time the regime fell, was sentenced to life. Abdullah Kathim Ruwaid, his son, Mizhar Abdullah Kathim Ruwaid and Ali Dayih Ali - all local Baath Party officials in 1982 when someone shot at Saddam’s convoy during his visit to the mostly Shiite city of Dujail - received a 15-year sentence.
One defendant, a lower-ranking Baath official in the city of Dujail, where the case centered upon, was released immediately.
Seven guards surrounded Saddam, who wore a suit and carried a Koran, as he entered the courtroom. He initially refused to stand up as the verdict was being read, only doing so after two guards forced him up.
Some of those in the visitor gallery were reprimanded by the judge for cheering too loudly. In Baghdad's mostly Shiite neighborhoods, there was rapid gunfire more than a half-hour after the verdict was read. In Saddam’s hometown of Tikrit, protestors immediately took to the streets.
In a statement, U.S. envoy Zalmay Khalilzad said: "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. As the Iraqi people move forward, the United States will support them in their efforts to build a just and democratic society."
The court adjourned immediately after reading the verdicts without elaborating on how it reached them.
The nation braced itself for what some feared would be a new round of violence by Saddam's supporters in an already turbulent nation.
Indeed, all of the nation's security forces were ordered to work, and the government issued a curfew. Others hoped it would rejuvenate hopes in the country's national government and judicial system.
The verdicts were decided by a five-judge panel who read their written statements to each defendant, beginning with Mohammed Azawi Ali, who was immediately cleared of all charges. Many had agreed that prosecution had presented the weakest case against Ali.
The trial, which began in October 2005, charged that Saddam and his cohorts rounded up innocent residents of Dujail, took them off to camps and killed and tortured - all in response to an apparent assassination attempt against Saddam. And they said large parts of the orchards in the city were razed in the search for attempted assassins, in some cases ruining their farming livelihood. Saddam was visiting the town in 1982 when someone fired on his convoy.
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