Saddam Hussein death sentence a milestone

Still, she adds, "this was not a sham trial. It was always an ambitious undertaking. The judges have done their best in difficult circumstances, coming from a very low base."

Amnesty International, which opposes capital punishment, said on Sunday that the tribunal had missed an opportunity to establish the rule of law in Iraq, and to ensure "truth and accountability for the massive human rights violations perpetrated by Saddam Hussein's rule."

The case dealt with a 1982 assassination attempt against Hussein in the town of Dujail, which prompted revenge killings of 148 people, deportation of 400, and razing of orchards. One intelligence document indicated the level of torture used against the 148, noting that "of those who were sentenced to death, 46...had been eliminated or died during the investigation."

But it is only the first in a dozen or so being prepared against Hussein and the former regime by the troubled Iraqi High Tribunal, which has been dogged by legitimacy issues, the murder of three defense lawyers, the resignation of one chief judge, an array of confusing testimony, and a multitude of farcical in-the-dock antics by Hussein and his codefendants.

The second, much larger case, charges genocide and covers the 1988 Anfal campaign against the Kurds in which up to 180,000 were killed. Legally, Sunday's death sentences will go through an automatic appeals process with no deadline. If the verdict is confirmed, the sentence must be carried out within 30 days. Hussein had requested execution by firing squad, normally reserved for the military.

Death sentences Sunday were also delivered to Barzan Ibrahim, Hussein's half-brother and former intelligence chief, and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, former head of the Revolutionary Court. Former Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan was sentenced to life in prison; three lesser officials were handed 15-year jail sentences. The oldest defendant, a local Baath Party official in Dujail at the time, was acquitted for lack of evidence.

The Iraqi High Tribunal was expressly set up to enable Iraqis to feel "closer" to justice in the "New Iraq" created by the 2003 US invasion and subsequent occupation.

When the first trial began in October last year, Iraqis were at first riveted by the proceedings of the court, in which tearful witnesses – often testifying anonymously from behind a curtain – spelled out their suffering after the Dujail incident.

But it was not long before the novelty began to wear off of seeing Hussein and his co-accused engaging in feisty, irreverent arguments with judges and even guards during the trial's 39 sessions. Average Iraqis became more focused on day-to-day survival amid ongoing carnage. Sunday's verdict, finally, caught the nation's attention again.

"Saddam deserves to face such a court and I don't know how he could escape a guilty verdict for Dujail or more important cases," says Wamidh Nadhmi, a political science professor in Baghdad who manages a Sunni-led political coalition. "But now we are seeing more killing, more bloodletting than during his era."

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