Saddam Hussein was sentenced to death by hanging today for crimes against humanity as Baghdad’s Shia population deafened the city with celebratory gunfire at the demise of their nemesis.

Inside Baghdad’s heavily protected Green Zone, the ageing leader, with a touch of grey in his hair, and his seven co-defendants appeared in an austere courtroom, with a scale of justice behind the judge’s bench.

The man, who ruled Iraq with an iron fist for 35 years, was visibly shaking as he waited to learn his fate in what some had billed the trial of the century over the execution of 148 Shia villagers from the town of Dujail after a 1982 assassination attempt on Saddam’s life.

Judge Rauf Abdel Rahman ordered: "Make him stand," as Saddam pleaded to guards: "Don't bend my arms. Don't bend my arms."

Saddam, dressed in a dark jacket and white shirt, harangued the tribunal’s chief judge as the judgment was read.

"You can’t decide. You are slaves. God is great. Life is for us and death for our enemies. Life for the nation, death for the enemies of our nation," Saddam said, visibly shaking, his face wrapped tightly in a scowl.

A court official held Saddam's hands behind his back as Rahman, shouting to be heard over the defendant, declared: "The highest penalty should be implemented."

One of his lawyers shouted bitterly that marshal in the visitors gallery was chewing gum and laughing at Saddam’s reversal of fortune.

Next, Barzan Ibrahim, Saddam's half brother and Iraq’s intelligence chief at the time of the Dujail killings, appeared in court. He stood quietly as the judge sentenced him to death.

Before Saddam and Barzan Ibrahim appeared, Awad Hamed al-Bandar, head of the Revolutionary Court that issued the execution orders against Dujail residents, was sentenced to death. He screamed "Allahu Akhbar" (God is Great) as Rahman delivered his verdict. The judge flicked his wrist and ordered the guards to drag Bandar back to his cell.

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

An appeals process is due to start within 30 days. It will be heard before a chamber of nine judges and could take several months to reach a conclusion.

If they agree that Saddam should be sentenced to death, the former leader will have to be executed within 30 days of that decision.

Reaction to the verdict mirrored Iraq’s sharp sectarian divide, which many Iraqis believe has dragged the country into civil war.

In the Shia slum of Sadr City, fighters from radical cleric Moqtada Sadr's Mahdi Army militia, blamed for much of the sectarian violence in Baghdad, cruised a victory lap in seven cars and pick-up trucks.

One fighter, lugging a rocket-propelled grenade, said: "Today the big head is finished. And today we will kill all the Sunni Baathists and we will kill all the small heads."

On the state’s official television channel Iraqiya, a song was broadcast of children singing "Judge you must execute Saddam Hussein, the persecutor," even before the verdict was announced.

Hundreds protested in Saddam’s hometown Tikrit, yelling "Our heart, our soul, our blood for Saddam," "Saddam is the owner of Iraq," and "the government is American."

One man, named Sheikh Ahmed Jabouri, cursed the Americans. "There will be more than 300 to 400 Americans killed in the next month."

The US military’s armoured Stryker vehicles rumbled through the Sunni bastion of Dura in Baghdad.

Clashes broke out between police and protesters in the Sunni enclave of Adhamiyah, the last place Saddam was seen in April 2003 before Baghdad fell to the Americans.

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