KEY POINTS:
What happened in Dujail?
The charges Saddam Hussein faced stem from events in Dujail, a Shiite farming village about 60km north of Baghdad, after local young men tried to assassinate the Iraqi ruler in 1982 as his motorcade passed through town.
Prosecutors say Saddam sought brutal revenge, ordering his commanders to hunt down, torture and kill more than 140 villagers.
Women and children were alleged to have been forcibly removed from Dujail, imprisoned and later sent to a desert internment camp where many "disappeared". The village's farmlands, rich date palm and fruit groves on the banks of the Tigris, were salted and laid waste.
What Saddam said in court
In March, Saddam Hussein acknowledged he ordered trials that led to the execution of dozens of Shiites in the 1980s, but that he acted within the law as Iraq's president.
"I referred them to the Revolutionary Court according to the law. Awad was implementing the law, he had a right to convict and acquit," Saddam said, referring to his co-accused Awad al-Bander, the former chief of the Revolutionary Court.
"I razed them ... We specified the farmland of those who were convicted and I signed," said Saddam. "It's the right of the state to confiscate or to compensate. So where is the crime?"
What witnesses said
Many of the witnesses in the televised trial testified from behind a curtain and used a computerised voice modifier for fear of their lives.
In a December hearing, Ahmed Hassan, 38, said he and his family were seized and taken to an intelligence building in Baghdad run by Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti, Saddam's half-brother and intelligence chief.
"I swear by God, I walked by a room and saw a grinder with blood coming out of it and human hair underneath," he said.
In another hearing, a woman broke down in tears as she described how Iraqi prison guards forced her to strip naked, gave her electric shocks and beat her with cables.
Another witness said Barzan was present when he was tortured in Baghdad. "During the interrogation they'd torture me, and Barzan was there eating grapes."
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THE COURT:
Saddam and his co-defendants were tried by what was originally called the Iraqi Special Tribunal, established in December 2003 by US-led occupation authorities. It became known as the Iraqi High Tribunal in October 2005 and consists of two trial chambers with five judges in each.
THE CHARGES:
Saddam was charged with crimes against humanity for the arrest, torture, killings and deportation of 399 men, women and children. A total of 148 were killed. The charge sheet included wilful killing, deportation or forcible transfer of population, imprisonment, torture, enforced disappearance of persons and other inhumane acts.
THE VERDICT:
Proof was to be shown only to the "satisfaction" of the judges, falling short of the "beyond reasonable doubt" benchmark of the Anglo-Saxon legal system.
Saddam Hussein was found guilty of crimes against humanity and sentenced to hang. The tribunal also handed down death sentences to former revolutionary chief judge Awad Hamed al-Bander and to Saddam's half brother and former intelligence chief Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti.
Former Iraqi vice president Taha Yassin Ramadan was also found guilty and sentenced to life in prison. Three local Baath party officials were found guilty and sentenced to 15 years in prison and a fourth was acquitted.
THE APPEAL:
Defendants can appeal against the verdict to a nine-member appeals chamber. If the verdict is death or life in prison, an appeal is automatic even if defence counsel does not submit one. Any sentence must be carried out within 30 days of all appeals being exhausted. There is no statute of limitation as to how long the appellate court can take on ruling.
The presidential council, made up of Iraq's president and two vice presidents, has to ratify any death sentence before it is carried out. The current president is an ethnic Kurd and the two vice presidents are a Shi'ite and a Sunni Arab.
Iraqi law states that the corpse of the executed person is handed over to relatives if they so request. Otherwise the prison authorities will carry out the burial at government expense, but there will be no funeral ceremony.
OTHER CASES:
Saddam is also facing charges in a separate trial for genocide against ethnic Kurds and, despite Sunday's verdict, proceedings for the Anfal (Spoils of War) military campaign will continue. Only after the death of a defendant are the charges of other cases dropped.
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A CASE OF THE TRAGIC AND BIZARRE
2005
* June 17: First criminal case filed against Saddam and seven co-defendants, charged in the deaths of about 150 Shiites after a 1982 assassination attempt against the president in Dujail.
* Oct 19: Trial begins, with Saddam challenging the court's legitimacy.
* Oct. 20: Masked gunmen kidnap defence attorney Saadoun al-Janabi after he leaves his Baghdad office. His body is found the next day with bullet holes in the head.
* Nov. 8: Defence lawyer Adel al-Zubeidi is killed in a Baghdad ambush and a colleague, Thamir al-Khuzaie, is wounded. Al-Khuzaie flees the country.
* Nov. 28: Trial reconvenes after five-week recess, and Saddam calls Americans "occupiers and invaders".
* Dec. 4: One of the five judges steps down after learning that a Saddam co-defendant may have been involved in his brother's execution.
* Dec. 5: Defence lawyers walk out when denied right to challenge court's legitimacy; chief judge then reverses ruling and allows former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark, a member of Saddam's defence team, to speak.
* Dec. 7: Saddam refuses to attend, a day after yelling: "I will not come to an unjust court! Go to hell!"
* Dec. 21: Saddam claims Americans beat and tortured him and other defendants.
2006
* Jan. 15: Chief Judge Rizgar Amin, a Kurd, resigns after complaints by Shiite politicians that he had failed to keep control of court proceedings.
* Jan. 23: Court officials name Raouf Abdul-Rahman, another Kurd, to replace Amin.
* June 21: Defence lawyer Khamis al-Obeidi is abducted and slain.
* July 7: Saddam and three others refuse food to protest lack of security for lawyers and conduct of the trial.
* July 23: Saddam is hospitalised on the 17th day of his hunger strike and fed through a tube.
* July 27: Dujail trial adjourns.
* Nov. 5: Verdict. Saddam sentenced to hang.
- REUTERS, NZPA
