Celebratory gunfire swept across parts of Baghdad and other Iraqi cities Sunday as Saddam Hussein and two former top Iraqi officials were sentenced to die for crimes against humanity.

Defiant as the historic verdict was read, Mr. Hussein accused the judge of the US-created tribunal of being a "mouthpiece of occupation and colonialism," and cursed "your law and your articles and clauses."

Amid fears and explicit warnings that a death sentence would deepen bloodshed, Baghdad and two restive provinces were placed under an open-ended curfew for vehicles and pedestrians.

The tribunal is the first such court since Nuremburg's Nazi war-crimes trials to hand down a death sentence. After appeal, Hussein faces hanging.

The tribunal's creators had hoped that the forum would play a central role in closing the door on 30 years of ruthless oppression under Hussein. Indeed, Shiites and Kurds, who bore the brunt of tens of thousands of deaths at the hands of the regime, were jubilant. But that joy was tempered among Sunnis disenfranchised by Hussein's overthrow, and angry over what many saw as a political trial overly dependent on American experts and resources. The result, experts say, is a positive step for Iraqi justice, but one that reveals a deep and continuing weakness in the rule of law.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki heralded the result as "the end of a dark era," and a reason for hope among Iraqis battered by 3-1/2 years of Sunni-led insurgency and sectarian violence that the UN says takes nearly 3,000 Iraqi lives each month.

"Maybe this will alleviate the pain of the widows and orphans, and those forced to bury their loved ones," Maliki said. "The era of Saddam is now the era of the past. It is an era of dictators like Mussolini and Hitler. We are determined to build an Iraq without mass graves, without Anfal, and without wars, without military coups."

US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad called the verdict an "important milestone" for Iraq.

The tribunal, partly due to its heavy reliance on American resources and expertise and the blatant interference of senior Iraqi officials, has drawn criticism from international legal experts. Maliki recently said: "God willing, the verdict of death will soon be issued against the tyrant Saddam."

"This tribunal has suffered an unusual number of problems, compared to other tribunals" such as those of the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, says Miranda Sissons, head of the Iraq program of the New York-based International Center for Transitional Justice.

Deteriorating security has been a crucial issue, experts say, along with the inexperience of Iraqi judges and lawyers, and little reference to lessons learned from other international tribunals, or to non-US experts.

"If there is one thing that will make this court a laughing stock, it is continued executive interference in its work," says Ms. Sissons. "Mistakes were made in setting up the tribunal that shouldn't have been made."

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