Saddam Hussein was sentenced to death by hanging yesterday for crimes against humanity. However, months or years may pass before the sentence is carried out, writes Lara Marlowe.
This is because the case is automatically referred to an appeals court with no time limit on its deliberations. The execution would take place within 30 days of confirmation of the guilty verdict.
Joyful celebrations among Shia Muslims and protests by Iraqi Sunnis showed how deeply divided the country remains. Saddam is the first Arab head of state to be judged for crimes against his people.
US president George Bush hailed the trial as "a milestone in the Iraqi people's effort to replace the rule of a tyrant with the rule of law" and "a major achievement for Iraq's young democracy and its constitutional government".
White House spokesman Tony Snow described as "preposterous" allegations that the verdict was timed to help embattled Republicans in tomorrow's mid-term elections.
The trial, for the murder of 148 Shia Muslims in the village of Dujail in 1982, started in October 2005 in Baghdad's fortified Green Zone. One hundred and thirty witnesses testified in 40 sessions. Saddam repeatedly challenged the legitimacy of the Iraqi High Tribunal, staged a hunger strike and walkouts. Three of his defence lawyers were assassinated.
The fallen dictator yesterday behaved as defiantly as he had since his arraignment in July 2004. Wearing a black blazer and open-neck white shirt, Saddam sought to portray himself as the true representative of Iraq, Arabs and Islam.
"We are the people of this land," he said twice, holding up a Koran. "Go to hell with your articles and clauses," he told chief judge Raouf Abdul Rahman.
When Saddam refused to stand to listen to the verdict, court officials wrestled him to his feet.
"Take your hands off me," he shouted. A five-minute shouting match ensued, as the judge read the verdict and Saddam denounced "collaborators" and "traitors".
Saddam, his half-brother Barzan al-Tikriti, and Awad Hamed al-Bander, the judge who signed posthumous death sentences for villagers massacred after an assassination attempt against Saddam, were all sentenced to death by hanging for wilful killing. Saddam and Barzan received additional sentences of 34 years in prison for the forcible transfer of population, imprisonment violating the norms of international law and torture.
The former Iraqi vice-president Taha Yassin Ramadin was sentenced to life in prison on the same charges. Three Baath party officials received 15-year sentences, and an eighth co-defendant was acquitted for lack of evidence.
Until the death sentence is carried out, a second trial, which started on August 21st, will continue to prosecute Saddam for the 1988 "Anfal" operation in which he is accused of responsibility for the deaths of 180,000 Kurds, including 5,000 who were gassed to death at Halabja. A subsequent investigation found the lethal substances were imported from Germany or made in Iraq by US and French-built factories.
In Sadr City, the vast Shia Muslim slum that is home to half of Baghdad's population, thousands of people defied curfew to celebrate in the streets, flashing the "V" for victory sign and demanding that the tribunal hand Saddam over "so the people can execute him themselves". Crowds in the southern Shia city of Najaf chanted "Death to Saddam!" and "Die you Baathists!"
In Baghdad, sporadic mortar attacks and gunfire occurred between Sunni and Shia militias.
In several towns in the "Sunni Triangle", crowds carried Saddam's portrait and chanted the traditional Arab oath: "With our blood, with our souls, we sacrifice ourselves for you, Saddam."
Iraq's prime minister Nuri al-Maliki, a Shia Islamist, said the sentence "does not represent anything for me because executing him is not worth the blood he spilled, but it may bring some comfort to the families of the martyrs".
Earlier, Mr Maliki was criticised for saying that Saddam's execution could not come soon enough.
His government yesterday shut down two Sunni television stations which it accused of inciting violence.