An Iraqi special tribunal today convicted Saddam Hussein of crimes against humanity and sentenced him to death by hanging for the brutal repression of Dujail, a Shiite town, in the 1980s. As the verdict was read, Hussein shouted, “Long live the people! Long live the Arab nation! Down with the spies!” He then chanted “God is great.” The chief judge, Raouf Rasheed Abdul Rahman, tried to calm Hussein down. “There’s no point,” Rahman said.

The five-judge panel, which heard more than nine months of testimony in the case, also issued death sentences for two of his seven co-defendants: Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti, Hussein’s half-brother, who was head of Iraq’s domestic intelligence agency; and Awad al-Bandar, president of Hussein’s revolutionary court.

Under Iraqi law, death sentences automatically trigger an appeal to the appellate chamber of the trial court, so any executions would likely be subject to a delay of at least several months and possibly as much as a year.

Taha Yassin Ramadan, a former vice president under Hussein and the leader of the Popular Army, a Baath Party militia at the time of the Dujail events, was sentenced to life in prison for his involvement in the crimes. Three local Baath Party officials — Abdullah Kadhim Ruweid, his son Mizher Abdullah Ruweid and Ali Dayeh Ali — were sentenced to 22 years of prison for murder and torture. Another defendant and minor Baath party official, Mohammed Azawi Ali, was acquitted.

For many Iraqis, the verdicts represented a moment of triumph and catharsis after decades of suffering under Hussein’s tyrannical rule. Spontaneous celebrations broke out across Iraq in spite of an around-the-clock curfew imposed on the capital and other regions. Pistols and assault rifles were fired into the air across the capital and elsewhere in a common gesture of celebration. People flooded the streets of Sadr City, a Shiite bastion of Baghdad, whooping and dancing and sounding car horns. Even some Shiite police officers joined in the celebratory gunfire.

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