Saddam lashes out - again

Former leader forced to attend hearing, during which prosecutors offer documents, witnesses in attempt to link him directly to executions

BY MOHAMAD BAZZI | STAFF CORRESPONDENT

February 14, 2006

BEIRUT, Lebanon - After boycotting two sessions, Saddam Hussein was forced to attend his trial yesterday. But he didn't waste any time before he started heckling the chief judge.

"Why have you brought us here with force?" Hussein shouted at the judge soon after the hearing began in Baghdad. "Your authority gives you the right to try a defendant in absentia. Are you trying to overcome your own smallness?"

In what marked a new phase of the trial, prosecutors tried to connect Hussein directly to the arrest, torture and execution of hundreds of Iraqis. Prosecutors presented documents with what they claimed were Hussein's handwritten orders, and they put his former chief of staff on the stand. Since the trial started on Oct. 19, the five-judge tribunal has heard testimony from 26 prosecution witnesses. Many of them provided heart-wrenching accounts of torture and years of imprisonment, but none established Hussein's direct responsibility.

Hussein and seven officials of his ousted regime are on trial in the summary executions of ' Shia Muslims - and the arrest and torture of hundreds of others - in the village of Dujail after a 1982 assassination attempt on the Iraqi dictator. All eight men face maximum sentences of death by hanging.

At yesterday's hearing, prosecutors introduced two documents from Hussein's office and put two former regime officials on the stand. One of the witnesses was Ahmed Khudayer al-Samarrai, who was director of Hussein's presidential office for 15 years. He said he had been forced to testify, and he refused to answer many of the prosecution's questions.

"I am not fit to be a witness in this case," al-Samarrai, 62, pleaded with the chief judge. "I don't want to be a witness."

Prosecutors presented one document from 1984, which they alleged was written and signed by Hussein and approved "the execution of the Dujail criminals." When prosecutors asked al-Samarrai whether he had made the handwritten notations at the bottom of the memo, he responded, "I don't remember anything at all ... This was more than 20 years ago. How can you expect me to remember this document?"

Prosecutors introduced another memo, dated in 1987 and from the legal department of the president's office, which noted that two Iraqis sentenced to death for the Dujail ambush had not yet been executed. It said there should be an investigation into why the executions had not been carried out, and suggested that the men be released because of their old age.

A handwritten note at the bottom of the memo approved the investigation and the men's release. "We cannot allow luck to be more compassionate than us," said the note, which was allegedly written by Hussein. "Even when compassion here goes to the undeserving."

From its start, the trial has been marred by delays, the assassination of two defense lawyers, the resignation of its original chief judge and courtroom outbursts by Hussein and several co-defendants. When the new chief judge, Raouf Abdel-Rahman, took over on Jan. 29, he warned the defendants and their lawyers that he would not tolerate outbursts and political speeches.

By the end of that session, Hussein, four co-defendants and the entire defense team had either been ejected or had walked out of the courtroom. The judges appointed other lawyers for the defendants. The original defense team is still boycotting the trial, saying Abdel-Rahman is unfit to lead it.

At yesterday's session, Hussein's half-brother and co-defendant, Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti, was forced into the courtroom as he shouted and struggled with guards holding him by the arms. He was dressed only in a white undershirt and brown underpants. For much of the session, he sat on the floor with his back to the judges.

Hussein walked into the defendants' pen shouting, "Down with Bush. Long live the nation."

At one point, the chief judge rebuked Hussein for not standing up when he addressed the court.

"I don't do this for a man who doesn't respect the law," Hussein retorted, arguing that he could not be forced to accept his court-appointed lawyers.

"We are implementing a law that was issued when you were president," Abdel-Rahman replied.

"Degradation and shame upon you, Raouf," Hussein shouted. Later, he called the judges "homosexuals."

In another outburst, Hussein slammed his fist on the railing of his metal pen.

"You do not have the right to sit on that chair because you are ignorant of the law," he yelled at the chief judge. "This is not a court, this is a game."