(Adds Saddam's defence team, legal expert, edits)

By Ibon Villelabeitia and Ahmed Rasheed

BAGHDAD, Nov 3 (Reuters) - Three years after American soldiers found him hiding in a hole, Saddam Hussein may be condemned to hang on Sunday if an Iraqi court finds him guilty of crimes against humanity.

The final act of Saddam's year-old first trial, 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 to keep power over Iraq's disparate peoples.

Yet the country's descent toward civil war since Saddam was overthrown has blighted proceedings. Three defence lawyers were killed, the judge quit over political interference and Iraqis, who a year ago gasped in wonder to see the former strongman in court, have lapsed into distracted indifference to his fate.

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, with some disregard for judicial independence, has said cannot come soon enough.

But a death sentence -- which Saddam with typical bombast has demanded in court should instead be by military firing squad -- may be many months, even years, away. He is due back in court on Tuesday in another trial, for genocide against ethnic Kurds.

Michael Scharf, a law professor who has trained judges and prosecutors in the Dujail case, said the trial, despite flaws, is one of the most important war crimes proceedings since the Nuremberg trials against top Nazis at the end of World War II.

"The ruling could set a principle in international law for war crimes in the years to come," he told Reuters.

U.S MID-TERM ELECTIONS

Saddam's chief lawyer Khalil al-Dulaimi said the timing of the verdict was timed to boost President George W. Bush before U.S. mid-term elections on Nov. 7 and urged a delay.

Richard Dicker, from Human Rights Watch, said the case was a "lost opportunity to promote the rule of law".

Proceedings in the heavily fortified Baghdad courtroom have taken place against a backdrop of sectarian violence. Defence counsel, dominated by Saddam's fellow Sunnis, blamed Shi'ite gunmen for their colleagues' deaths. The first chief judge, a Kurd, resigned to protest government meddling.

Many in the Shi'ite town of Dujail refused to speak to a Reuters reporter out of fear. Several said they were concerned Sunni insurgents might launch attacks timed with the verdict.

Far from being a catharsis for Iraqis scarred by Saddam's rule, many feel the trial has deepened animosities between communities 3-1/2 years after the U.S.-led invasion. Some legal experts say it should have been held in a third country.

In the village of Awja, Saddam's birthplace in the Sunni heartland of Salahaddin province, many asked for his release.

"If they want peace in Iraq, we demand they stop this farce trial run by Bush and his aides," said Ahmad al-Nasiri.

Dulaimi has warned a death sentence against Saddam, held in a U.S.-run prison, would plunge Iraq into full scale civil war.

Security in the Green Zone, the courtroom's venue, has been tightened ahead of the verdict, which officials say should be announced on Sunday. The Defence Ministry said the army had cancelled all leave and put troops on alert.

Saddam has been defiant during televised sessions, still calling himself the president of Iraq. He has staged hunger strikes and has said the verdict has been rigged.

As Bush faces mounting criticism over the war, a guilty verdict two days ahead of tight U.S. congressional polls could be a vindication of his policy to overthrow Saddam. U.S. officials say Washington has no say over the court's decisions.

Throughout the case, Iraqi court officials have been consulting closely with -- and, sources close to the court say, firmly guided by -- American lawyers from a U.S. Embassy office.

In a recent briefing, a U.S. official close to the court said the trial against Saddam was historically more significant than those against former strongmen such as Slobodan Milosevic.

"Saddam is being tried by his own people and in his land," the official said. "That is what this trial is about."

But for Ali Raheem, a 32-year engineer, the verdict will not mean much. "We don't care whether Saddam is executed or not. We don't care about the trial. We've had enough of bombs and killing, all we wish is to live in peace." (Additional reporting by Suleiman al-Khalidi in Amman and Claudia Parsons in Baghdad) (Baghdad newsroom, editing by Elizabeth Piper)

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