BAGHDAD, 6 November 2006 — A defiant Saddam Hussein was sentenced to death by hanging yesterday for crimes against humanity.
Judge Rauf Rasheed Abdel Rahman was obliged to shout to make the sentence heard over Saddam’s protestations. “Make him stand,” barked the judge, as Saddam shouted at the guards: “Don’t bend my arms. Don’t bend my arms.” A court official held Saddam’s hands as he was pushed into place to hear Abdel Rahman declare: “The highest penalty should be implemented.”
Saddam, 69, was sentenced to death for “willful killing,” part of his indictment for crimes against humanity in his role in ordering the deaths of 148 Shiite villagers in the village of Dujail, north of Baghdad in 1982.
Raising a finger in the air and at other times brandishing a copy of the Qur’an, Saddam protested the court’s decision. “Long live the Iraqi people. God is greater than the occupier,” he cried before security guards pinned his hands behind his back as the judge went on delivering the sentence.
Another security guard was thrown out of court after a defense lawyer protested that the guard had been openly mocking Saddam. The guards later hustled Saddam out of the courtroom.
But the defiant former military strongman still gave a quick smile, looking at the prosecutors’ bench and the press gallery as he was escorted from the court.
Saddam’s half-brother and intelligence chief Barzan Al-Tikriti was also sentenced to death, as was Awad Ahmed Al-Bandar, who was chairman of the so-called Revolutionary Court that ordered the Shiites executed.
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.
The tribunal’s spokesman and chief investigative judge, Raed Al-Juhi, said Saddam’s appeal process would begin today and its deliberations would last a month, but that no date had been set for the announcement of its final decision.
If the appeals court, a nine-member panel of judges, upholds Abdel Rahman’s verdict, Saddam will be hanged within 30 days of its ruling.
Saddam’s most outspoken American defender, former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark, was thrown out of the trial and accused of insulting the people of Iraq. Clark, a member of Saddam’s defense team and a strident critic of the conduct of his trial, attended the start of the session but was ejected before Saddam was sentenced.
“Get him out of the hall. He came from America to ridicule the Iraqi people and ridicule the court,” Judge Abdel Rahman said. “A bad arrow returns to the chest of its shooter.”
After the hearing, chief prosecutor Jaafar Al-Mussawi told reporters that the court would file a complaint against Clark with the American Bar Association, and also accused him of contempt. “Clark submitted a study containing phrases humiliating to the Iraqi people and subsequently the court had no option but to take a decision to dismiss him from the session,” Mussawi said at a news conference.
Iraq’s Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki said Saddam’s execution could not compare with “one drop of the blood” of the martyrs who died opposing his rule.
“This sentence is not a sentence on one man, but a sentence against all the dark period of his rule,” Maliki said in a passionate address to the nation shortly after Saddam was convicted.
“This ruler has committed the most horrible crimes. He executed the best scientists, academics and thinkers,” said Maliki.
US President George W. Bush called the verdict “a milestone in the Iraqi people’s efforts to replace the rule of a tyrant with the rule of law.” He said it was a major achievement for Iraq’s young democracy and its constitutional government.
Election-year bickering quickly broke out. Democrats said justice was served but that it was unclear how the verdict would change the course of the war.
“The Iraqis have traded a dictator for chaos. Neither option is acceptable, especially when it is our troops who are caught in the middle,” said Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada.
Iraq sealed off its main land border with Jordan yesterday until further notice. “The Iraqi authorities have decided to close Al-Karameh border crossing (from their side) to truck and passenger traffic, both those arriving and departing, from Sunday until further notice,” the Jordanian Petra agency said.
The agency did not give an immediate reason for the closure but quoted a police statement urging travelers to Iraq to postpone their trips.
