A visibly shaken Saddam Hussein was found guilty of crimes against humanity yesterday and sentenced to hang at a lightning session of the U.S.-sponsored court that has been trying him in Baghdad for the past year. Two other senior aides, including his half-brother Barzan al-Tikriti, will also hang if their automatic appeals fail. His former vice-president Taha Yassin Ramadan was sentenced to life in prison.?This court doesn?t acquit or finish me. The issue is in the hands of God almighty,? he commented. Three minor Baath party officials received long jail sentences.

Shortly after the verdict was read in a heavily-fortified Baghdad courtroom, clashes broke out between gunmen and U.S. and Iraqi troops in two Sunni Muslim neighbourhoods of the capital. By contrast Shi?ites, the majority now dominating Iraq, swarmed into the streets, yelling in joy that the secular Sunni Arab who oppressed them for three decades is now likely to be executed. The reactions underscored the deep sectarian divisions in Iraq more than three years after the U.S.-led invasion.

Saddam?s counsel said the verdict was timed to help President George W. Bush?s Republicans at Tuesday?s congressional elections, and had urged a delay to prevent the sentence triggering bloodshed ?for generations to come?.

The U.S. ambassador, Zalmay Khalilzad, said ?closing the book on Saddam and his regime? was a chance for Iraqis to unite. The court was set up by U.S. occupying officials who resisted calls for an international tribunal, saying Iraqis should run it. However, the descent into sectarian violence has dented hopes that the trial would be a force for unity.

At first, the 69-year-old ousted president, who has defiantly justified killing and torturing Shi?ite opponents, refused to stand before the judge. Eventually he rose shakily to his feet in the dock to hear the verdict and sentence read out.

As chief judge Raouf Abdul Rahman spoke, Saddam, hands clenched behind his back, almost succeeded in drowning him out, yelling the Muslim battle cry of ?Allahu Akbar!? (God is Greatest) and ?Long Live Iraq!?

?The court has decided to sentence Saddam Hussein al-Majid to be hanged until he is dead for crimes against humanity,? the judge said, ignoring a plea made by Saddam earlier in the trial that he should face a military firing squad, not the noose. ?Long live the people, long live the nation. Down with the agents, down with the invaders. Allah is great... ?I urge the people of great Iraq to forgive all of those who had strayed should they renounce their (treacherous) position. I also urge the people of great Iraq not to be angry with the people of the countries that committed aggression against Iraq and to be open for forgiveness?, replied Saddam Hussein.

Abdul Rahman, prompted by the defence lawyers, ordered one of the guards around Saddam out of court for chewing gum and apparently laughing at the condemned man.

After more than a year of proceedings in the case, which concerns the deaths of more than 148 Shi?ite men from the town of Dujail, there was little left to be said. Like his co-accused, Saddam was led away by guards after hearing his sentence. After just 45 minutes, Abdul Rahman wound up proceedings.

There was sporadic celebratory gunfire in Baghdad, notably from areas where the long oppressed Shi?ite majority live. Police said one woman was killed and 10 people were wounded by bullets fired into the air. When Saddam?s two sons were killed in a U.S. raid in July 2003, dozens of casualties were reported from celebratory gunfire, a long-standing Arab tradition.

<B>?A mockery of justice?</B>

Maliki had called for calm in rejoicing but also said Saddam should get ?what he deserves?. State television broadcast images of people celebrating the verdict on the street, superimposed with footage from Saddam-era mass graves and killings.

Baghdad?s main Sunni channel instead showed a soap opera. Maliki?s government has been criticised for interfering in the case ? notably by the first chief judge, who quit.

Saddam?s defence team, which had dismissed the court as a sham, called the verdict a ?mockery of justice?. Abdul Rahman?s first act in court yesterday was to eject former U.S. attorney general Ramsey Clark after the veteran legal campaigner sent him a note describing the trial as a ?mockery of justice?.

The Iraqi High Tribunal also handed down death sentences to Awad Hamed al-Bander, former chief judge in Saddam?s Revolutionary Court, and to Saddam?s half brother and former intelligence chief, Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti. The fourth minor Baath party official from Dujail was acquitted at the prosecutor?s request for lack of evidence. The charges stemmed from retaliations against hundreds of people from Dujail after an assassination attempt against Saddam in the town in 1982.

<B>Mussab AL-KHAIRALLA Ibon VILLELABEITIA</B>