(Updates throughout with verdicts)

Nov 5 (Reuters) - Former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein was found guilty on Sunday of crimes against humanity and sentenced to hang in a case involving the deaths of more than 148 Shi'ite men from the town of Dujail.

The Iraqi High Tribunal also handed down death sentences to former revolutionary chief judge Awad Hamed al-Bander and to Saddam's half brother and former intelligence chief Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti.

Here are some key facts on the background to the case.

WHAT HAPPENED IN DUJAIL?

In Dujail, a Shi'ite farming village about 60 km (35 miles) north of Baghdad, local young men tried but failed to assassinate Saddam in 1982 as his motorcade passed through.

Prosecutors have said Saddam sought brutal revenge, ordering his commanders to hunt down, torture and kill more than 140 villagers.

Women and children were alleged to have been forcibly removed from Dujail, imprisoned and later sent to a desert internment camp where many ultimately disappeared. The village's farmlands, rich date palm and fruit groves on the banks of the Tigris, were salted and laid waste.

WHAT DID SADDAM SAY IN COURT?

In March, Saddam Hussein acknowledged he ordered trials that led to the execution of dozens of Shi'ites in the 1980s but said he acted within the law as Iraq's president.

"I referred them to the Revolutionary Court according to the law. Awad (the judge) was implementing the law, he had a right to convict and acquit," Saddam said. "I razed them ... we specified the farmland of those who were convicted and I signed," said Saddam. "It's the right of the state to confiscate or to compensate. So where is the crime?"

WHAT DID WITNESSES SAY?

Many of the witnesses in the televised trial testified from behind a curtain and using a computerised voice modifier out of fear for their lives.

In a December 2005 hearing, Ahmed Hassan, 38, recounted how he and his family were seized and tortured. He said they were taken to an intelligence building in Baghdad run by Barzan.

"I swear by God, I walked by a room and ... saw a grinder with blood coming out of it and human hair underneath," he said.

In another hearing, a woman identified only as Witness A broke down in tears as she described how prison guards forced her to strip naked, gave her electric shocks and beat her with cables. Witness B, a woman in her 70s, said she, her husband, five daughters and two sons were imprisoned.

Another witness who testified anonymously said Barzan was present when he was tortured in Baghdad. "During the interrogation they'd torture me, and Barzan was there eating grapes. I was screaming. I'm an old man. He was there."

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