Saddam To hang for Shiite slayings

Saddam, 2 co-defendants sentenced to hang for Shiite slayings

Updated 11/5/2006 4:45 PM ET
By Rick Jervis, USA TODAY

BAGHDAD — Saddam Hussein, who oversaw the murder of thousands of Iraqis during 24 years as their president, was convicted of committing crimes against humanity in the 1982 killings of 148 people in a Shiite Muslim town. Iraq's former leader was sentenced to die by hanging.
Iraqi High Tribunal Chief Judge Raouf Abdel-Rahman took 40 minutes to summarize the 200-page judgment and pronounce Saddam guilty of crimes including murder, torture, imprisonment and forced deportation.

"The court decides to sentence Saddam Hussein to execution, hanging until death," Rahman said in his summary.

"It is a verdict on a whole dark era that was unmatched in Iraq's history," said Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who is a Shiite.

"It's a good day for the Iraqi people," White House spokesman Tony Snow said in a statement.

He added, "The judiciary is operating independently and we need to give them credit for doing their job."

Saddam, who had interrupted the court proceedings throughout the nine-month trial, shouted Sunday as the verdict was read: "Allahu Akbar! (God is greatest)" and "Down with the occupiers!" After sentencing, marshals escorted the former Iraqi leader from the courtroom.

Saddam was among eight co-defendants accused of revenge killings in the city of Dujail, 35 miles north of Baghdad, after a 1982 assassination attempt on the former dictator. The current Iraqi prime minister's Islamic Dawa party, then an underground opposition, claimed responsibility for organizing the attempt on Saddam's life.

Also convicted and sentenced to death by hanging: Barzan Ibrahim, Saddam's half-brother and Iraq's former intelligence chief, and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, former head of the revolutionary court. Former vice president Taha Yassin Ramadan received a life sentence. Three other defendants — Abdullah Kazim Ruwayyid and his son Mizhar Abdullah Ruwayyid, officials in Saddam's ruling Baath Party in Dujail, and Ali Dayih Ali — were sentenced to 15 years in prison. They were considered responsible for the Dujail arrests. Mohammed Azawi Ali, a former Dujail Baath Party official, was acquitted and freed.

Moments after the verdict was read, the capital erupted in celebratory gunfire. Cheering throngs of Iraqis took to the streets from Tal Afar to Nasiriyah.