<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has been convicted of crimes against humanity by a Baghdad court and sentenced to death by hanging. He was found guilty over his role in the killing of 148 people in the mainly Shia town of Dujail in 1982. His half brother Barzan al-Tikriti was also sentenced to death, as was Iraq's former chief judge Awad Hamed al-Bander Former vice-president Taha Yassin Ramadan got life in jail and three others received 15 year prison terms. Another co-defendant, Baath party official Mohammed Azawi Ali, was acquitted. When called to court, Saddam Hussein, dressed in his usual dark suit and white shirt and carrying a Koran, walked to his customary seat and sat down. Long live Iraq! Long live the Iraqi people! Down with the traitors! Saddam Hussein, reacting to verdict John Simpson on Saddam Hussein's performance Judge Rauf Abdel Rahman ordered Saddam Hussein to stand while he read out the verdict, but the former president defiantly refused to do so and had to be moved from his seat by court attendants. As the judge began reading the death sentence Saddam Hussein shouted out "Allahu Akbar!" (God is Greatest) and "Long live Iraq! Long live the Iraqi people! Down with the traitors!" The former leader looked shocked and furious as the sentence was passed, and continued to shout, denouncing the court, the judge and the US-led occupation force in Iraq. But the BBC's world affairs editor John Simpson said that after his tirade, as he was led away from the courtroom, Saddam Hussein seemed to have a small smile on his face. "It was as if he was thinking 'I've come here and done what I intended to do'," our correspondent said. Celebratory gunfire Shortly after the verdict was announced celebratory gunfire could be heard across Baghdad. The whole city of six million people has been placed under a 12-hour daytime curfew that bans all vehicle and pedestrian traffic amid fears of violence from Saddam Hussein's Sunni Arab supporters. The government cancelled all army leave and the city's civilian airport has been closed. Three nearby provinces, including Salahuddin, which contains Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit, are also under curfew. Almost three years since Saddam Hussein was captured, soaring sectarian violence has brought Iraq to the brink of civil war. Few Iraqis think the trial verdict will ease conflict, the BBC's Andrew North in Baghdad says. Even those Iraqis who want to see their former leader dead do not believe his execution would make things any better, our correspondent says. 'Victors' justice' Many critics have dismissed the trial as a form of victors' justice, given the close attention the US has paid to it. Lawyers for Saddam Hussein have also accused the government of interfering in the proceedings - a complaint backed by US group Human Rights Watch. And the former leader's lawyers have attacked the timing of the planned verdict, which comes days before the US votes in mid-term elections. US President George W Bush's Republican Party is at risk of losing control of Congress in part because of voter dissatisfaction over its handling of the Iraq conflict. In a televised speech on Saturday, Nouri Maliki, Iraq's Shia Arab prime minister, said he hoped Saddam Hussein would get "what he deserves" for "crimes against the Iraqi people". Ahead of the verdict Mr Maliki called for calm, saying that Iraqis should mark it in a way that "does not risk their lives".</div> Source
A lot of Middle Eastern countries still stone people, cut off hands for stealing etc. But you know a country is f***ed when they celebrate by firing guns.
I knew about the stonings, cutting of hands, and stuff like that, but damn, I thought hanging went out a while ago. I thought for sure it'd be by a firing squad. BTW, In some parts of India (I believe that's the country) a punishment for stealing is, if you tell them that you're innocent, they make you prove it. How? Sticking your hand into frying oil and holding it there for 5 or 10 seconds.
<div class="quote_poster">TheBlackMamba Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">BTW, In some parts of India (I believe that's the country) a punishment for stealing is, if you tell them that you're innocent, they make you prove it. How? Sticking your hand into frying oil and holding it there for 5 or 10 seconds.</div> I'm confused... how does that prove if they are innocent or not? I thought Saddam Hussein would have been tried in United States or like a United Nations court or something? Because if Saddam was tried in Iraq, if he was smart he could have changed all the punishments prior to being caught to being like a week in jail or something.
<div class="quote_poster">TheBlackMamba Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">I knew about the stonings, cutting of hands, and stuff like that, but damn, I thought hanging went out a while ago. I thought for sure it'd be by a firing squad. BTW, In some parts of India (I believe that's the country) a punishment for stealing is, if you tell them that you're innocent, they make you prove it. How? Sticking your hand into frying oil and holding it there for 5 or 10 seconds.</div> It's not in India...I saw this on a documentary footage somewhere as well, and I'm PRETTY sure (not 100% confident though), that it's not in India. I think it was in Thailand or the Phillipines but I'm not completely sure. Actually, in the documentary I saw, the people had to put their TOUNGUE on something really hot (I forget what), and it was like if the toungue isn't injured beyond a certain point, they're telling the truth; but if it's injured to a certain point, they're lying. It was somehting along those lines and had to do with religious beliefs I believe. Anyways, about Saddam being hanged...Life in prison is a much worse punishment IMO because it makes your life all that much longer and more 'sufferring' is included in it. Hanging someone in 2006 is stupid I think...but I guess no one really wants to shoot another person. Atleast it's better then putting someone in an electric chair (which I think is really ridiculous because sometimes it doesn't even work properly).
Does anybody else find it a bit suspicious that this ruling is coming down just days before an election that the Republicans are losing?
This is the ultimate punishment for Saddam because he said if he gets death penalty, he wants to be shot dead because he is a military man, not hung like a common criminal.
By the time he actually goes to the gallows he is gonna need a wheelchair. He has an automatic appeal, plus i believe he has to be tried for murdering a bunch of kurds....its gonna be a while.
<div class="quote_poster">norespect Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">By the time he actually goes to the gallows he is gonna need a wheelchair. He has an automatic appeal, plus i believe he has to be tried for murdering a bunch of kurds....its gonna be a while.</div> I heard that the appeal panel has an unlimited amount of time to review the case but once they come to a decision, the execution must take place within thirty days of the ruling (assuming they find him guilty).
nobody should be put to death, even someone as terrible as saddam, as ghandi once said "an eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind". saddam should rot in jail for the rest of his life, the death penalty is not justified
<div class="quote_poster">AKIRA Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">nobody should be put to death, even someone as terrible as saddam, as ghandi once said "an eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind". saddam should rot in jail for the rest of his life, the death penalty is not justified</div> Why should tax money be spent to keep him fed? I don't agree with hanging him, it's just going to bring unnecessary attention to his death. I'd rather someone walk up and put a bullet through his brain.
<div class="quote_poster">AKIRA Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">nobody should be put to death, even someone as terrible as saddam, as ghandi once said "an eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind". saddam should rot in jail for the rest of his life, the death penalty is not justified</div> an enlightened aussie?
<div class="quote_poster">deception Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">an enlightened aussie?</div> we are everywhere.
I vote for cruel and unusual punishment. I vote we strap him to a SCUD missile and launch him into France. Either way, justice is served. I'm kidding. And I'll give the standard issue, "some of my best friends are French"-type-(lame)-excuse-for-justifying-slams-against-certain-nationalities(like the French). Hey Antoine Rigadeau Rocks! And I like baggettes!
Somebody care to tell me why Saddam is getting hanged as a result of American intervention, but guys like Paul Kagame, Jo?o Bernardo Vieira, Robert Mugabe, Omar Hasan Ahmad al-Bashir, and Than Shwe get to continue their violent dictatorships. Saddam is getting hanged for killing 148 people, but many of the dictatorships in the world see more and more people killed as a direct result of their dealings every day.
In Iraq I believe that they still hang people, and punishments for stealing and stuff is so cruel like getting your fingers chopped off, or like hands cut off. I know they used to do this is Saudia Arabia, and I think the same goes for Iraq.
