Reactions to Saddam verdict

Reactions following the verdict of death by hanging to former President Saddam Hussain have been mixed with Iraqi Shiites breaking into celebrations in Sadr city and Sunnis parading through their former leader's hometown of Tikrit vowing to avenge Saddam. Reactions from the international community were just as varied.

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani: Said that Saddam's trial was “fair'' but would not give a comment on the death sentence.

US President George W. Bush:
"It's a milestone in the Iraqi people's efforts to replace the rule of a tyrant with the rule of law. It's a major achievement for Iraq's young democracy and its constitutional government."

British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett:
"Appalling crimes were committed by Saddam Hussein's regime. It is right that those accused of such crimes against the Iraqi people should face Iraqi justice, today's verdicts and sentences by the Iraqi Higher Tribunal come at the end of a trial during which evidence has been offered and challenged in the full glare of media scrutiny."

Amnesty's director of the Middle East Malcolm Smart: "Throughout Saddam's rule, we reported on massive abuses in his country. We felt it was important that he and others be held accountable. But even he deserves a fair trial, and the proceeding in Baghdad failed to meet the necessary fail trial standards."

British Home Secretary John Reid:
The verdict was a “sovereign decision by a sovereign nation. It is in a sense the ultimate expression of the sovereignty of Iraq.They are masters of their own destiny and they have taken a decision today as controllers of that destiny which I think all of us ought to respect.''

Chairman of Islamic Human Rights Comission: Massoud Shadjareh:
"Here was an opportunity for him to come in front of an independent international court and face all the charges against him - what he did to his own people and what he did to those in places like Kuwait. He should have been dealt with for all his crimes together."

US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad:
"A former dictator feared by millions, who killed his own citizens without mercy or justice, who waged wars against neighboring countries, has been brought to trial in his own country and held accountable in a court of law with ordinary citizens bearing witness."

Saddam defence lawyer Bushra Al Khalil:
“This is a mockery of justice and a judgement that comes from a sham and illegal court created by the U.S. occupation that cannot ever provide a fair trial.''

Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini:
"The Islamic Republic of Iran, remembering the inhuman crimes of Saddam and his allies against the Iraqi, Iranian and Kuwaiti nations...welcomes the verdict."