British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett on Sunday welcomed the announcement of the death sentence of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, saying the verdict was just for the Iraqi people.

"I welcome (the fact) that Saddam Hussein and the other defendants have faced justice and have been held to account for their crimes," Beckett said in a statement.

"Appalling crimes were committed by Saddam Hussein's regime. It is right that those accused of such crimes against the Iraqi people should face Iraqi justice," she said.

"Today's verdicts and sentences by the Iraqi Higher Tribunal come at the end of a trial during which evidence has been offered and challenged in the full glare of media scrutiny," she added.

On Sunday, Saddam was found guilty by the Iraqi High Tribunal of crimes against humanity and sentenced to hang in a case involving the deaths of Shi'ite men from the town of Dujail.

Source: Xinhua