Saddam gets death

Baghdad: An Iraqi court sentenced a shaken but defiant Saddam Hussain to hang yesterday for crimes against humanity.

Shiite Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki called for unity after the ousted leader was handed "the punishment he deserves".

Najeeb Al Nuaimi, former Qatari justice minister and member of Saddam's defence team, told Gulf News in Doha that the sentence had been pronounced long before the trial started. "The judgment is illegitimate because it was based on illegitimate procedures," he said.

Saddam, 69, initially refused to stand when brought in to hear the verdict from Kurdish chief judge Raouf Abdul Rahman. When he did, shakily, with clear emotion, he yelled the defiant Arab battle cry "Allahu Akbar!" and "Long live Iraq" as the judgment was read.

His half-brother, Barzan Al Tikriti, and former judge Awad Al Bander were also sentenced to death for killing, torturing and deporting hundreds of people from Dujail in 1982.

Former vice president Taha Yassin Ramadan received a life term. Three Baath party officials were jailed for 15 years and an eighth defendant was acquitted for lack of evidence.

Iraq war protagonists the US and Britain led the applause, but other nations were uneasy that Saddam faces capital punishment.

- Additional inputs from Barbara Bibbo', Doha correspondent