,
A shaken but defiant Saddam Hussein was sentenced to death by hanging, as the dramatic end to his first trial drove another wedge between Iraq's already bitterly divided factions.
Saddam, 69, was sentenced to die for “wilful killing”, part of his indictment for crimes against humanity in ordering the deaths of 148 Shiite residents of Dujail, north of Baghdad, after a 1982 assassination attempt.
Judge Rauf Rasheed Abdel Rahman had to shout over Saddam's protests to make the death sentence heard.
“Make him stand,” barked the judge before delivering the sentence. Four court guards held Saddam upright as he shouted back: “Don't bend my arms. Don't bend my arms.”
Abdel Rahman declared: “The highest penalty should be implemented.”
“Long live Iraq,” the former strongman said as he was led away from the dock trembling. “Long live the Iraqi people. God is greater than the occupier.”
His earlier plea that he should face a military firing squad if sentenced to death was ignored by the judge.
The Iraqi High Tribunal's chief prosecutor Jaafar al-Musawi told reporters at the courthouse after the verdict that Saddam's crimes “are civilian crimes and not military crimes. So he will be hanged.”
Saddam's half-brother and intelligence chief Barzan al-Tikriti was also sentenced to die, as was Awad Ahmed al-Bandar, who was chairman of the so-called Revolutionary Court that ordered the Shiites executed.
The former vice president Taha Yassin Ramadan received a life sentence, while three Baath party officials from Dujail received 15 years each and a fourth, more junior figure, was cleared.
Saddam, however, was acquitted of one of the indictments in crimes against humanity, a US official close to the court said.
“He is acquitted of enforcing disappearance of persons,” the official said.
Sadr City, the main Shiite suburb of east Baghdad, erupted in joy at the verdict, as around 1,000 people marched, waved flags, denounced Saddam and hailed their hero, radical preacher Moqtada al-Sadr.
“Deliver him to us, we'll execute him ourselves,” shouted the crowd.
The rest of the city was locked down by a strict curfew as security forces feared an angry reaction from Saddam's remaining supporters among Iraq's Sunni Arab minority, who were favoured under his 24-year reign.
Iraq's beleaguered military was on a war footing for the verdict and a curfew was in force in three flashpoints: the war-torn capital; the sectarian battlefields of Diyala; and Saddam's home region of Salaheddin.
Nevertheless, thousands of Sunnis defied the curfew to march in support of Saddam in his hometown of Tikrit, some of them firing wildly in the air as US helicopters circled overhead.
“With our souls and our blood we redeem you, Saddam. Death to traitors and spies. Damn (US President George W.) Bush and his agents. Yes, yes to the resistance. No option but to get rid of the occupier,” chanted the crowd.
In an immediate example of the sectarian divide, Iraq shut down two Sunni television stations, accusing them of inciting violence after the verdict.
“We accept debates on any subject, but we do not tolerate television reports that encourage murder and violence,” said interior ministry spokesman Brigadier General Abdel Karim Khalaf, without elaborating.
Sunni militant groups — including the Islamic Army of Iraq, which is made up of former Baath party cadres and veterans of Saddam's armed forces — have been at the forefront of attacks on US and government forces more than three and a half years after a US-led invasion toppled Saddam.
The tribunal's spokesman, judge Raed al-Juhi, said Saddam's appeal would begin on Monday and that deliberations would last a month, but said no date had been set to announce the final decision.
If the nine-judge panel upholds Abdel Rahman's verdict, Saddam will be hanged within 30 days of its ruling.
The defendants were convicted of ordering collective punishment for the small town of Dujail, where agents of current Prime Minister Maliki's Dawa party tried to kill Saddam in 1982.
A Baath party kangaroo court sentenced 148 Shiite civilians to die.
The defence team said Saddam expected the death penalty but was in good spirits as he planned his appeal.
“I was among 12 defence lawyers who met Saddam Hussein for four hours on Saturday afternoon. His morale was very high, it was made of steel,” Tunisian lawyer Ahmad Siddiq told AFP.
“He told us he was convinced he would get the death sentence and he said 'you have done everything you could but the court was manipulated'.”
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki hailed the verdict: “Iraq's martyrs can now smile again.”
Bush called Saddam's conviction a “major achievement” and a “milestone” for Iraq's move to democracy.
Finland, which holds the rotating EU presidency, opposed the hanging.
“The EU opposes capital punishment in all cases and under all circumstances and it should not be carried out in this case either,” the Finnish presidency said in a statement.
Amnesty International described the prosecution as a “shabby affair, marred by serious flaws”.
Human Rights Watch said the trial should have been conducted by an international court, and its director for international justice Richard Dicker called the verdict a “lost opportunity to give a sense of the rule of law”.
