Saddam Hussein got what was expected since long by the International affairs experts. Saddam convicted by the Iraqi special tribunal and sentenced to death by hanging under the charge of crime against humanity. The court found him guilty for the brutal repression of Dujail, a Shiite town in the 1980s.
The five-judge panel had heard the testimony in the case for more nine months. The panel also sentenced Hussein’s half-brother, Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti, and Awad al-Bandar.
When the judgment announced, Saddam screamed as, Long live the people! Long live the Arab nation! Down with the spies! He then hymned, ‘God is great.’
The case, according to the Iraqi law, automatically will go to the appellate chamber of the trial court. It may take possibly one more year to settle the final judgment.
There was jubilation erupted in the Shiite bastion of Baghdad. On the other hand, in some Sunni Arab dominated areas, the mood of the people was violent.
After the verdict there was some violence reported between peopel and the Iraqi Army in the Sunni neighborhood of Adhamiya in northeastern Baghdad. Near Bayji, north of Tikrit, Hussein’s birthplace, fighting erupted between American troops and the Saddam supporters.
