BAGHDAD, Iraq (AFP) – A shaken but defiant Saddam Hussein was sentenced to death by hanging on Sunday, as the dramatic end to his first trial drove another wedge between Iraq’s already bitterly divided factions.

Saddam, 69, was sentenced to death for “willful killing”, part of his indictment for crimes against humanity in his alleged role in ordering the deaths of 148 Shiite villagers from the village of Dujail, north of Baghdad, after an assassination attempt in 1982.

Judge Rauf Rasheed Abdel Rahman was obliged to shout to make the death sentence heard over the ousted leader’s protests.

“Make him stand,” barked the judge before delivering the sentence. Four court guards held Saddam upright as he shouted back: “Don’t bend my arms. D o n’t bend my arms.”

Abdel Rahman declared: “The highest penalty should be implemented.”

“Long live Iraq,” the former strongman said as he was led away from the dock, trembling. “Long live the Iraqi people. God is greater than the occupier.”

His earlier plea that he should face a military firing squad if sentenced to death was ignored by the judge.

The Iraqi High Tribunal’s chief prosecutor Jaafar al-Musawi told reporters at the courthouse after the verdict that Saddam’s crimes “are civilian crimes and not military crimes. So he will be hanged.”

S a d d a m’s half-brother and intelligence chief Barzan al-Tikriti was also sentenced to death, as was A wad Ahmed al-Bandar, who was chairman of the so-called Revolutionary Court that allegedly

ordered the Shiites executed.

The former vice president Taha Yassin Ramadan received a life sentence, while three Baath party officials from Dujail received 15 years each and a fourth, more junior figure, was cleared.

Saddam, however, was acquitted of one of the indictments in crimes against humanity, a US official close to the court said.

“He is acquitted of enforcing disappearance of persons,” the official said.

Sadr City, the main Shiite suburb of eastern Baghdad, erupted in joy at the verdict, as around 1,000 people marched, waved flags, denounced Saddam and hailed their hero, radical preacher Moqtada al-Sadr.

“Deliver him to us, we’ll execute him ourselves,” shouted the crowd.

The rest of the city was locked down by a strict curfew as security forces feared an angry reaction from S a d d a m’s remaining supporters among Iraq’s Sunni minority, who were favoured under his 24-year reign.

Iraq’s beleaguered military was on a war footing for the verdict and a curfew was in force in three flashpoint provinces — the war-torn capital, the sectarian battlefields of Diyala and S a d d a m’s home region of Salaheddin.

Nevertheless, thousands of Sunnis defied the curfew to march in support of Saddam in his hometown, the northern city of Tikrit, some of them redeem you, Saddam. Death to traitors and spies. Damn (US President George W) Bush and his agents. Yes, yes to the resistance. No option but to get rid of the occupier,” chanted the crowd.

The tribunal’s spokesman and chief investigative judge, Raed al-Juhi, said S a d d a m’s appeal would begin on Monday and its deliberations would last a month, but that no date had been set for the announcement of its final decision.

If the appeals court, a nine-member panel of judges, upholds Abdel R a h m a n’s verdict, Saddam will be hanged within 30 days of its ruling, but it was far from clear how long it would take for them to announce.

P rime Minister Nuri al-Maliki hailed the verdict — declaring “Iraq’s martyrs can now smile again” — but it was criticised by international human rights groups as the product of a flawed trial.

Amnesty International described the prosecution as a “shabby affair, marred by serious flaws”.

Human Rights Watch director for international justice Richard Dicker said the trial should have been conducted by an international court and called the verdict a “lost opportunity to give a sense of the rule of law”.

The White House welcomed the guilty verdict, saying it provides proof of the viability of Iraq’s fledgling government, while Britain said the former Iraqi president and his codefendants had been “held to account”.

In Tikrit, Sheikh Al-Nadawi, the head of the Baigat group of tribes to which Saddam belongs, said: “Saddam lived a hero and will die as a hero. The court was set up by his rivals… It is a historical farce.”