SADDAM SENTENCED TO DEATH Options

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Saddam Hussein gets death by hanging
Sunday, November 5, 2006 (Baghdad):

Former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein has been sentenced to death by a trial court in Baghdad.

Sixty-nine year-old Saddam has been found guilty of the mass murder of 148 Shi'ite villagers after an attempt on his life in the town of Dujail in 1982.

Iraq's High Tribunal found Saddam Hussein guilty of crimes against humanity and sentenced him to hang.

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.

Former vice president Taha Yassin Ramadan was sentenced to life in prison.

The verdicts come nearly three years after US forces located and arrested Saddam who was in hiding.

Celebrations after verdict

Celebratory gunfire rang out elsewhere in Baghdad, and the people in Sadr City, the capital's Shiite slum, celebrated in the streets.

They carried pictures of radical anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and handed out candy to children.

In Tikrit, Saddam's hometown, 1,000 people defied the curfew and carried pictures of the city's favorite son through the streets.

Right to appeal

Some declared the court a product of the US "occupation forces" and decried the verdict.

The big question now is what happens next to Iraq. There are sweeping curfews already in place in Baghdad and elsewhere.

Authorities have braced for violent reactions to the verdicts.

Saddam and the others do have the right of appeal but the law states that a death sentence should be carried out within 30 days after all appeals are exhausted.

What happens next?

In Iraqi law, guilty verdicts on murder charges are automatically sent within 10 days to a nine-judge appellate chamber, no matter who the defendant is.

It can take as little as 20 days for the appeal to be heard. If a death sentence is upheld, it must be carried out within 30 days, and Iraq's tripartite presidency must sign the execution papers.

Execution is by hanging, although Saddam has asked for a firing squad.

World reaction

The verdict has been welcomed by many across the world, including UK foreign secretary Margaret Beckett.

The United States Embassy immediately issued a statement under the name of Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad.

"The verdicts demonstrate the commitment of the Iraqi people to hold them (Saddam and his co-defendants) accountable," he said.

But many in the Arab world believe Saddam Hussein was overthrown by an illegal invasion. They also regard his trial as illegal.

Clashes in Baghdad

Soon after the verdict, clashes broke out in north Baghdad's heavily Sunni Azamiyah district where police were battling men with machine guns.

Ahead of the verdict, Baghdad was placed under a total curfew.

In Saddam's hometown of al-Awja, in the Sunni heartland of Salahaddin, support for the former dictator remains strong.

Saddam returns on Tuesday to continue his second trial, for the gas attacks against ethnic Kurds villages in 1988.

Case history

The Dujail massacre case is the first of several brought against the former Iraqi leader.

According to court officials the case was chosen because it was the easiest and quickest case to compile.

In October 2005, Saddam Hussein and his co-defendants were led into pens in the centre of the courtroom.

The trial was held in an imposing building that once served as the National Command Headquarters of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party, in the heavily fortified Green Zone in the Iraqi capital. (With AP inputs)

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6 Hours 24 minutes

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49 Hours 15 minutes