Iraq on alert before Saddam verdict

BAGHDAD, Nov 4 (Reuters) Iraqi security forces are on alert and a curfew may be imposed if Saddam Hussein is sentenced to death tomorrow when a court gives its verdict in his trial for crimes against humanity.

Saddam's chief lawyer Khalil al-Dulaimi said yesterday the ousted Iraqi president believed the verdict was timed to boost President George W Bush before U S mid-term elections on November 7 and urged a delay. He warned of bloodshed if Saddam is sentenced to death.

Saddam, 69, and seven co-accused have been charged with crimes against humanity for the killing of 148 Shi'ite villagers after an attempt on his life in the town of Dujail in 1982.

If convicted, Saddam faces death by hanging, a prospect Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has said cannot come soon enough.

Even if convicted, the fulfilment of a death sentence may be many months, even years, away as it would have to wait until all appeals are exhausted. He is due back in court on Tuesday in another trial, for genocide against ethnic Kurds.

The Defence Ministry yesterday cancelled all leave for army officers in anticipation of the verdict.

National Security Adviser Mowaffak al-Rubaie told local television stations a curfew would be imposed in Baghdad and the provinces of Diyala and Salahaddin, Saddam's home province.

State television Iraqiya said there would be a total curfew tomorrow but another senior official said others in the government were against a curfew and a decision would be taken later tonight. Curfews are regularly imposed in Iraq at sensitive times and on Fridays, the Muslim day of prayer.

Various Sunni Arab insurgent groups see the ousted president as a figurehead in their resistance against U S troops. He remains a deeply divisive figure in a country riven by sectarian violence between the Sunni Arab minority, Kurds and Shi'ites who were oppressed by Saddam but now dominate political power.

The verdict is the high point of a historic, U S-sponsored experiment in international justice intended to unite Iraqis in exorcising three decades of rule by the former president, accused of mass killing and torture.

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