Saddam Hussein in court on Tuesday. (AP)

Baghdad, Nov. 7 (AP): A sombre Saddam Hussein called on Iraqis to forgive each other today, when he returned to court two days after a panel of judges had condemned him to death for crimes against humanity.

Saddam, speaking to the court in the afternoon session, cited references to the Prophet Mohammed and Jesus who had asked for forgiveness for those who had opposed them.

“I call on all Iraqis, Arabs and Kurds, to forgive, reconcile and shake hands,” Saddam said after respectfully challenging one witness’s testimony.

The former President, who appeared in a black suit with white shirt, appeared both sombre and subdued during the proceeding, where he and other six defendants are on trial for the Operation Anfal crackdown against Iraqi Kurds in the late 1980s.

Saddam showed none of the bravado of two days ago, when he shouted “Long live the people and death to their enemies”! as he was sentenced to the gallows.

Instead, he sat in stony silence today as Kurdish survivors told of being duped by promises of amnesty, only to watch their friends and family being shot by Iraqi government soldiers.

On Sunday, a five-judge panel convicted Saddam in the deaths of nearly 150 Shias following a 1982 assassination attempt against him in the town of Dujail. He and two others were sentenced to death by hanging. Four co-defendants received lesser sentences and one was acquitted. The Anfal trial will continue while an appeal in the Dujail case is under way.

Yesterday, the chief prosecutor in the Dujail case said a nine-judge appeals panel was expected to rule on Saddam’s guilty verdict and death sentence by the middle of January. That could set in motion a possible execution by mid-February.