http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/saddam-sentenced-to-death/2006/11/05/1162661540493.html
Saddam sentenced to death November 5, 2006 - 8:14PM Ousted Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein has been sentenced to death by hanging after being found guilty on Sunday of crimes against humanity in ordering the deaths of 148 Shiite villagers. Visibly trembling, Saddam cried: "Long live Iraq. Long live the Iraqi people. God is greater than the occupier." Four guards took him away with his hands held behind him after the sentence was read. Saddam and seven co-defendants faced crimes against humanity charges over the 1982 killings of 148 townspeople in Dujail after a failed assassination attempt on the former leader. The Iraqi High Tribunal also handed down death sentences to former revolutionary chief judge Awad Hamed al-Bander and Saddam's half brother and former intelligence chief Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti. Former Iraqi vice president Taha Yassin Ramadan was sentenced to life in prison. A death sentence or life imprisonment generates an automatic appeal, delaying any execution by months at least. Saddam has said he wants to face a military firing squad, not the hangman. Three Baath party officials also charged over the killings were sentenced to 15 years in prison. The judge also sentenced them to seven years each for torture but they will serve the sentences concurrently. Abdallah Khaden Ruweid, his son Mizhar Abdallah Ruweid and Ali Daeh Ali were jailed by the Iraqi High Tribunal in Baghdad. Mohammed Azzawi Ali was cleared of involvement in the massacre. Prosecutors had recommended the acquittal of Azzawi, a Baath Party official in Dujail and one of the lesser-known defendants, for his role in the killings following an assassination attempt on Saddam in 1982. The chief judge also ordered former US Attorney-General Ramsey Clark expelled from verdict session. Earlier, a defiant Saddam shrugged off a possible death sentence, saying he would die without fear and the US occupiers of his country would leave humiliated like they did in Vietnam, his lawyers said. The lawyers said on Sunday a jovial and highly spirited Saddam chatted with them for more than three hours about the violence in Iraq and mounting US losses just hours before an expected death sentence in his trial for crimes against humanity. The prospect of the sentence appeared to be the least of his concerns, they said, his focus instead being on the insurgency and the rising US death toll. "He was totally unconcerned about the verdict. In fact there was derision about the court and this farce," Khalil al-Dulaimi, the defence team's chief lawyer told Reuters by telephone from Baghdad. "I will die with honour and with no fear, with pride for my country and my Arab nation but the US occupiers will leave in humiliation and defeat," Saddam was quoted by the lawyers as saying. Saddam seemed ecstatic when another lawyer gave him the Arabic version of the book "My Year in Iraq: The Struggle to Build a Future of Hope" by Paul Bremer, who led the US civilian occupation authority after the 2003 invasion. The lawyers who saw him said the former strongman, arrested in December 2003, had scoffed at the book's title and said he could only see a "doomed America sinking more and more in the Iraqi quagmire, just like what happened in Vietnam". "They will see rivers of blood for years to come. It will dwarf Vietnam," they quoted Saddam, 69, as saying. "He has an awareness from the experiences of history that the Iraqi people will never submit to occupation," said Wadoud Fawzi Shams Eddin, a member of the defence team. "He laughed and said the Americans were paying heavily for their invasion which they thought would be picnic," said Issam Ghazzawi, a Jordanian lawyer who also saw him on Saturday. More than 100 US soldiers died during October, the highest monthly toll in nearly two years. The lawyers said the toppled leader, wearing a dark grey suit with a white shirt, was aware a death sentence was the likely outcome of the year long trial. Saddam, 69, and seven co-accused have been charged with crimes against humanity for the killing of 148 Shi'ite villagers after an attempt on his life in the town of Dujail in 1982. But he seemed more concerned, as always, about news of more Americans losses in Iraq. "When the lawyers told him on Saturday the Americans had suffered seven casualties, he nodded with a broad smile," Shams Eddin said. To their surprise, his American captors had provided him with a radio that enabled him to tune into the pro-US Iraqi channels, the lawyers said. That made him aware that Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki had put the army on alert and that a curfew would keep Baghdad and two flashpoint provinces locked down on Sunday. "The brave Iraqi resistance are already defeating the greatest power on earth and for me they are my idols and I will depart content they have preserved Iraq and the Arab glory from the infidel," said one lawyer who requested anonymity, recalling Saddam's last words to them before they departed. AP/AFP/Reuters -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: osint@yahoogroups.com Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. 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