SADDAM HUSSEIN, the man who terrorised millions, was sentenced to death by hanging yesterday for crimes against humanity.

Baghdad’s Shia population deafened the city with celebratory gunfire at the demise of their nemesis. Saddam’s Sunni followers vowed revenge, while Shia militiamen threatened to hunt down Baathists.

Inside Baghdad’s heavily protected green zone, Saddam, 69, and his seven co-defendants were led one by one into the austere courtroom for a rapid-fire 45-minute session.

The man whose regime ruled Iraq with an iron fist for 35 years glared at the courtroom as he waited to learn his fate in the trial over the execution of 148 Shia villagers from the town of Dujail after a failed assassination attempt in 1982.

When he refused to rise, Judge Rauf Abdel Rahman ordered his courtroom guards: “Make him stand.” Saddam picked himself up and snapped: “You’re stupid. There’s no need to twist my arms. I’ll stand.”

Saddam harangued the tribunal’s chief justice as the judgment was read out. The furious judge and the man blamed for killing hundreds of thousands of his fellow citizens drowned each other out.

“You can’t decide. You are slaves. God is great. Life is for us and death for our enemies. Life for the nation, death for the enemies of our nation,” a bearded Saddam barked, as guards pinned down his arms.

Mr Rahman shouted over Saddam: “The court has decided to sentence Saddam Hussein al-Majid to death by hanging until he is dead.” The judge continued to read off his convictions as Saddam bellowed: “To hell with you!” With his arms pinned, Saddam was escorted from the room.

Next, Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti, Saddam’s half-brother and Iraq’s intelligence chief at the time of Dujail, entered and boasted: “Long live Iraq. Long live the Baath. Long live the Kurds. Long live the Arabs. Long live the great Baath.” But he turned quiet as the judge informed him that he would die.

The other defendant to be sentenced to death, Awad Hamed al-Bandar, head of Saddam’s Revolutionary Court, who ordered the killings of the Dujailis, went down fighting. Dressed in tribal robes, al-Bandar demanded that the judge let him speak before the verdict and Mr Rahman snapped. “Everything is over. Listen to the decision.”

Upon being told that he would be executed, al-Bandar screamed: “God is greater than the unjust. God is greater than the coloniser. God is greater than the agents. God is greater than the occupiers.” The judge flicked his wrist and ordered the guards to haul him back to his cell.

Saddam’s former Vice-President, Taha Yassin Ramadan, received a life sentence; three Baath party officials from Dujail received up to 15 years each and a more junior official was cleared.

During the unruly court session, Ramsey Clarke, Saddam’s defence lawyer and a former US Attorney-General, was ejected by Mr Rahman after submitting a statement calling the tribunal a mockery of justice.

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