Saddam defiant at start of trial
Former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein has made an outspoken attack on the judicial process as his trial for crimes against humanity began.
He and seven associates are charged with ordering the killing of 143 Shia men in 1982 in Dujail. He refused to confirm his identity, and questioned the validity of the trial and the presiding judge’s fitness. The televised trial is being heard in the heavily fortified Green Zone in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad.
TV pictures showed Saddam Hussein and his co-defendants being led into pens in the courtroom. The former leader was wearing a dark suit with an open-necked shirt and carrying an old copy of the Koran. As he was being led in by two guards, he gestured with his hand to slow them down.
Asked to confirm his name by chief judge Rizgar Mohammed Amin, Saddam refused and asked: “Who are you? What does this court want?” He then asked the judge: “Have you ever been a judge before?”
Saddam Hussein’s co-accused are Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti, Saddam’s half-brother who was his intelligence chief; former Vice-President Taha Yassin Ramadan; Awad Hamed al-Bandar, a former chief judge; and Dujail Baath party officials Abdullah Kadhem Ruaid, Ali Daeem Ali, Mohammed Azawi Ali and Mizher Abdullah Rawed.
The trial - in the marble building that once served as the National Command Headquarters of Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party - began more than two hours later than expected.
Ahead of its start, two mortars landed in the Green Zone, without causing casualties or damage. Saddam Hussein’s followers had called for attacks to mark the trial’s start. The courtroom is ringed with three-metre-high (10-foot) blast walls and US and Iraqi troops.
Public excluded
The trial is being presided over by five judges, with Mr Amin in overall charge. A small number of observers and journalists are in the courtroom, but the public has been excluded. The case is the first of many expected to be brought against the former Iraqi leader, who is 68.
It concerns the rounding up and execution of 143 men in Dujail, a Shia village north of Baghdad, following an attempt there on Saddam Hussein’s life. Court officials say the case was chosen because it was the easiest and quickest case to compile.
The charge carries the death penalty, though Saddam Hussein and his associates have the right to appeal if they are found guilty.
More charges
Prosecution lawyers are also expected to bring charges concerning the gassing of 5,000 people in the Kurdish village of Halabja in March 1988, and the suppression of a Shia revolt following the first Gulf War.
SADDAM’S CO-ACCUSED
Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti, former intelligence chief
Taha Yassin Ramadan, former vice-president
Awad Hamed al-Bandar, former chief judge
Abdullah Kadhem Ruaid, Dujail Baath party official
Ali Daeem Ali, Dujail Baath party official
Mohammed Azawi Ali, Dujail Baath party official
Mizher Abdullah Rawed, Dujail Baath party official
Iran said on Tuesday it had asked the court to charge the former Iraqi leader over the use of chemical weapons in the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war.
Saddam Hussein’s lawyers are expected to challenge the court’s right to conduct the trial.
“We will dispute the legitimacy of the court as we’ve been doing every day. We will claim it is unconstitutional and not competent to try the legitimate president of Iraq,” Mr Dulaimi said.
Mr Dulaimi added that he would be looking for an adjournment of at least three months, to allow him more time to prepare the defence case.
Human rights groups, too, have expressed concerns.
A Human Rights Watch report says the Iraqi Special Tribunal “runs the risk of violating international standards for fair trials”.
Amnesty International has sent three delegates to Baghdad to ensure Saddam Hussein receives a fair trial, and to oppose the death penalty if he is found guilty. But the United States said it expected the trial - the first time an Arab leader has been tried for crimes against his own people - to meet “basic international standards”. Saddam Hussein was captured in 2003 after the American-led invasion of Iraq
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4355992.stm
‘Who are you and what does this court want?’ He still seems disillusioned. Hopefully he’ll get what he deserves, i.e. the death penalty.