Saddam Hussein sentenced to death.

[Malahk Musashi]

Saddam Hussein has been sentenced to death for the killing of 148 Shiites in 1982.

Originally Posted by http://news.yahoo.com/

BAGHDAD, Iraq -
Saddam Hussein was convicted and sentenced Sunday to hang for crimes against humanity in the 1982 killings of 148 people in a single Shiite town, as the ousted leader, trembling and defiant, shouted "God is great!"

As he, his half brother and another senior official in his regime were convicted and sentenced to death by the Iraqi High Tribunal, Saddam yelled out, "Long live the people and death to their enemies. Long live the glorious nation, and death to its enemies!" Later, his lawyer said the former dictator had called on Iraqis to reject sectarian violence and refrain from revenge against U.S. forces.

The trial brought Saddam and his co-defendants before their accusers in what was one of the most highly publicized and heavily reported trials of its kind since the Nuremberg tribunals for members of Adolf Hitler's Nazi regime and its slaughter of 6 million Jews in the World War II Holocaust

"The verdict placed on the heads of the former regime does not represent a verdict for any one person. It is a verdict on a whole dark era that has was unmatched in
Iraq's history," said Nouri al-Maliki, Iraq's Shiite prime minister.

Some feared the court decision could exacerbate the sectarian violence that has pushed the country to the brink of civil war, after a trial that stretched over nine months in 39 sessions and ended nearly 3 1/2 months ago. The verdict came two days before midterm elections in the United States widely seen as a referendum on the Bush administration's policy in Iraq. U.S. and Iraqi officials have denied the timing was deliberate.

The White House praised the Iraqi judicial system and denied the U.S. had been "scheming" for the verdict.

Iraqis "are the ones who conducted the trial. The Iraqi judges are the ones who spent all the time pouring over the evidence. ... It's important to give them credit for running their own government," said Tony Snow, the president's spokesman.

In north Baghdad's heavily Sunni Azamiyah district, clashes broke out between police and gunmen. Elsewhere in the capital, celebratory gunfire rang out.

"This government will be responsible for the consequences, with the deaths of hundreds, thousands or even hundreds of thousands, whose blood will be shed," Salih al-Mutlaq, a Sunni political leader, told the Al-Arabiya satellite television station.

Saddam and his seven co-defendants were on trial for a wave of revenge killings carried out in the city of Dujail following a 1982 assassination attempt on the former dictator. Al-Maliki's Islamic Dawa party, then an underground opposition, has claimed responsibility for organizing the attempt on Saddam's life.

In the streets of Dujail, people celebrated and burned pictures of their former tormentor as the verdict was read.

Saddam's chief lawyer Khalil al-Dulaimi condemned the trial as a "farce," claiming the verdict was planned. He said defense attorneys would appeal within 30 days.

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.

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.

During Sunday's hearing, Saddam initially refused the chief judge's order to rise; two bailiffs pulled the ousted ruler to his feet and he remained standing through the sentencing, sometimes wagging his finger at the judge.

Before the session 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 trial a travesty.

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

In addition to the former Iraqi dictator and Barzan Ibrahim, his former intelligence chief and half brother, the Iraqi High Tribunal convicted and sentenced Awad Hamed al-Bandar, the head of Iraq's former Revolutionary Court, to death by hanging. Iraq's former Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan was convicted of premeditated murder and sentenced 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.

He faces additional charges in a separate case over an alleged massacre of Kurdish civilians — a trial that will continue while appeals are pending.

The guilty verdict is likely to enrage hard-liners among Saddam's fellow Sunnis, who made up the bulk of the former ruling class. The country's majority Shiites were persecuted under the former leader but now largely control the government.

Al-Dulaimi, Saddam's lawyer, told AP his client called on Iraqis to reject sectarian violence and called on them to refrain from taking revenge on U.S. invaders.

"His message to the Iraqi people was 'pardon and do not take revenge on the invading nations and their people'," al-Dulaimi said, quoting Saddam. "The president also asked his countrymen to 'unify in the face of sectarian strife.'"

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 condemned the verdict.

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

U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad issued a statement saying 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.

Two U.S. officials who worked as advisers to the court on matters of international judicial procedures said Saddam's repeated outbursts during the 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 the 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 he was in charge and 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 approval for the Dujail death sentences, 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 children.

"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.

Under Saddam, Iraq's bureaucracy showed a consistent tendency to document orders, policies and minutes of meetings. One document gave the names of everyone from Dujail banished to a desert detention camp in southern Iraq. Another, prepared by an aide to Saddam, gave the president a detailed account of the punitive measures against the people of Dujail.

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

One of Saddam's lawyers was assassinated the day after the trial's opening session last year. Two more were later assassinated and a fourth 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. Abdul-Rahman, another Kurd, replaced Amin.

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

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

The original page is here.

[Rikkuffx]

Yup,he has and good for him. He deserves it.

EDIT by OceanEyes28: Normally, you're good about content. But this post is a disappointment. I don't want to see anymore posts like this in this thread. Opinions are good, but back them up on an issue like this.

[Georgiet]

i could really careless about for him but this was done just to piss of his people at us and the solders that are stationed there, it is like if they have a whole lot to worry about now.

[Chez Daja]

To be honest, I really think it would've been a better option just to let him stew and rot in prison for a while longer before a death sentence. But hey, he deserves either and both. So... I can't say I really disagree with the decision made.

[Setzertrancer]

That is great news, but I wish the trial system wasn't so slow, I mean he was an evil dictator who ordered terrorist attacks whether they were sucessful or not and they are still trying to make a case that he was innocent. Just to show how stupid and pointless I think this case is i'm going to recap a trial I heard of that happened in Britain that is just as stupid if not less so.

It went like this, a man's horse was suffering intolerable pain and so he decided to put it down by shooting it, all legal by the way. But it didn't end there because the horse happened to be wearing a saddle that was stuffed with feathers and there is a law that states "The killing of feathered animals is prohibited" So the prosecuter tried to argue that because the horse had feathers on it's back it counted as a feathered animal. Not sure who won, but they actually bothered to take that as an argument and the trial continued.

So this Saddam case is just as stupid. Even if the defence managed to disproved 90% of his crimes i'm sure he would still have 50 or so death sentences. I agree to a fair trial for all, but come on, he's had his trial and it has gone long enough. The people that were under this dictator were celebrating I mean I think they would know best what their leader was like to them and should probably be the Jury.

[Nin`]

Let’s have a show of hands.

How many think the Bushies want Saddam hung?

I’m against the death penalty it really solves nothing, but in this case, I think it makes good sense to keep the guy alive. A dead despot is a despot out of mind. And am I the only one who sees it ironic that Saddam is responsible for, say, 200K dead and he gets the noose. GWII is responsible for at least twice that many and he gets …. What?

It's kinda nice to know that despotic former presidents sometimes finish up in cages. It's a trend which I hope will continue.

Un Human Rights Body Declares Saddam Detention And Trial Illegal.

[Lucifer] In Iraq they seem to have some form of habeus corpus however flawed. Must be the civilizing influence of so called "American democracy".

[Lucifer] Presumably the Straw House is setting much electoral store in the expected guilty verdict and death sentence in the Saddam trial. Concepts such as due process are secondary to the greater good * of raising some decent press for God's chosen agents of Armageddon.

Saddam Hussein is of course an A* division, card carrying, 24 karat bastard. But this does not mean that he does not deserve a fair trial.

He is not getting one. This is not a court. It is a lynching party.

Lucifer

[Jin]

I've never been a fan of the death penalty, but I really don't feel too much for good ol' Saddam. What does worry me though (worry perhaps too strong a word) is that people like him that get the death sentence tend to be seen as a martyr by their followers and it may cause them to be more daring and violent...as if they didn't have enough martyring going on already. It's the same reason that Bonaparte wasn't executed, even after escaping exile the first time.

[Nin`]

Russia warns on Saddam hanging

Source: Agence France-Presse: Moscow
Authors: Not Credited (AFP)
Dated:2006-11-06

MOSCOW has warned of "catastrophic consequences" in Iraq if former president Saddam Hussein is hanged, but expressed scepticism today that the death penalty would be carried out.

If the execution took place "there would be catastrophic consequences for Iraq, which is already on the verge of breaking up", Konstantin Kosachev, president of the parliamentary commission for foreign affairs, said on Moscow Echo radio.

"It is unlikely the death penalty will be applied,” he said. “It's rather a decision of moral principle".

"It is obvious that condemning him to death will only further divide Iraqi society. The Sunnis will not recognise this sentence," he said.

Saddam Hussein was today sentenced to death by hanging for ordering the massacre of 148 Shiite residents of the village of Dujail in the 1980s.

[OnOneRyder]

I don't particularly feel bad about this, but I'm against the death penality in any way,shape or form including this mans fate. There wasn't many other options for him though, he would have cost millions upon millions to house safely in prison as he's a huge target. He would be lucky to make it the first few months.

Some of my friends were discussing this and one of them actually asked "do you think they'll televise it"? The thought of this disguists me, no one should get enjoyment or ammusement from watching anothers life end. That is just sick, but do you think it should be completely private? Do you think they should make this a public yet someone private event back in iraq for the citizens to get some closure? I think if they could do this securly the people of iraq do deserve it, but the chances of him being kidnapped and set free may be a little too much.

[Leroy]

Haha. I saw this in the newspaper. It's hilarious, because the image they used, had like happy muslim kids firing pistols into the air. How fucked Is that? Rofl.

[Rikkuffx]

Originally Posted by Jet Enduro

Haha. I saw this in the newspaper. It's hilarious, because the image they used, had like happy muslim kids firing pistols into the air. How fucked Is that? Rofl.

yea because in iraq they are cheering that hes sentenced to death..they are happy!