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 the country's already bitterly divided factions.
Judge Rauf Rasheed Abdel Rahman was obliged to shout to make the death sentence heard over the ousted Iraqi dictator's protestations.
"Make him stand," barked the judge, as Saddam shouted at the guards: "Don't bend my arms. Don't bend my arms."
A court official held Saddam's hands as he was pushed into place to hear Abdel Rahman declare: "The highest penalty should be implemented."
Saddam, 69, was sentenced to death for "wilful killing", part of his indictment for crimes against humanity in his role in ordering the deaths of 148 Shia villagers in the village of Dujail, north of Baghdad in 1982.
"Long live Iraq. Long live the Iraqi people. God is greater than the occupier," the former strongman declared as he was led away from the dock, trembling after being forced to stand before the Iraqi High Tribunal.
His earlier plea that he should face a military firing squad if sentenced to death was ignored by the judge, who ordered him hanged.
Saddam's half-brother and intelligence chief Barzan al-Tikriti was also sentenced to death, as was Awad Ahmed al-Bandar, who was chairman of the so-called Revolutionary Court that ordered the Shias 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.
Sadr City, the main Shia 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 Saddam'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 Saddam'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 firing wildly in the air as US helicopters circled overhead.
"With our souls and our blood we redeem you, Saddam. Death to traitors and spies. Damn Bush and his agents. Yes, yes to the resistance. No option but to get rid of the occupier," chanted the crowd.
There was also protest further south in the Sunni town of Hawijah, outside the divided oil city of Kirkuk, at which the crowd condemned US President George W. Bush and Iraq's US-backed government.
The tribunal's spokesman and chief investigative judge, Raed al-Juhi, said Saddam'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.
"The appeal against this sentence will start from tomorrow and last for 30 days. The court of appeal has set no timetable to issue its decision," he told reporters at the courthouse after the verdict.
If the appeals court, a nine-member panel of judges, upholds Abdel Rahman's verdict, Saddam will be hanged within 30 days of its ruling.
Prime 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 trial 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 co-defendants 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."
The defendants were convicted of ordering the village of Dujail to suffer savage collective punishment after agents of current Prime Minister Maliki's Dawa party tried to kill Saddam there in 1982.
The community's orchards were ripped up and 148 Shia civilians were dragged before a Baath party kangaroo court and sentenced to death.
The Dujail incident still carries a potent political charge more than three and a half years after Saddam was driven from power by a US-led invasion, amid ongoing sectarian bloodshed and effective occupation by US forces.
Iraq's Shia majority seized upon the fall of the dictator and the old elite to seize power and seek vengeance for crimes such as the destruction of Dujail, while the country has slipped into sectarian war.
Many insurgents fighting the US-backed regime remain loyal to Saddam, and the former dictator's defence team said he had been expecting the death penalty and was in good spirits as he planned his appeal.
"I was among 12 defence lawyers who met Saddam Hussein for four hours on Saturday afternoon. His morale was very high, it was made of steel," Tunisian lawyer Ahmad Siddiq told AFP.
"He told us he was convinced he would get the death sentence and he said 'you have done everything you could but the court was manipulated'," he said.
Sunni armed groups -- including the Islamic Army of Iraq, which is made up of former Baath Party cadres and veterans of Saddam's armed forces -- have been at the forefront of attacks on US and government forces.
Whether they have reserves of fury yet to unleash may become evident in the aftermath of the verdict.