Curfew in Baghdad on Saddam verdict day

BAGHDAD: Baghdad and the Iraqi provinces of Diyala and Salaheddin will be under curfew on Sunday to prevent violence on verdict day in Saddam Hussein's first trial, a top Iraqi official said on Saturday.  

More "security measures are under consideration," he said without offering details.  

Iraq has cancelled military leave and put its armed forces on alert as a precaution to prevent violence before or after Sunday's ruling by the Iraqi Hugh Tribunal in Saddam's trial for crimes against humanity.   

Saddam and seven former regime officials are charged with ordering the killing of 148 Shiites in the early 1980s in Dujail, where the deposed president escaped an assassination in 1982. 

It is feared that a death penalty as verdict in the trial could trigger violence in war-torn Iraq between supporters of the former president and his enemies.