Defiant Saddam Confronts Judge
SADDAM HUSSEIN CONFRONTS TRIAL JUDGEA combative Saddam Hussein today picked up his trial for crimes against humanity where he had left it off, making a series of heated outbursts against the chief trial judge.
Evidence of the former dictator's antagonistic attitude towards the court - put on full display when the hearing began on October 19 - was sparked by Judge Rizgar Amin asking him why he was eight minutes late.
Saddam blamed the delay on a malfunctioning lift and the insistence of guards that he wear shackles, which he said made it hard to climb the four flights of stairs to the court while carrying papers.
When Judge Amin, who won praise for his handling of a truculent Saddam during the opening session, said he would he tell the guards not to let it happen again, Saddam rebuked him. "You do not tell them. You order them. You are an Iraqi, they are conquerors and occupiers," he said.
In later exchanges, television footage was cut to show the court's emblem after Saddam complained that his pen and paper had been taken from him.
"Why would you confiscate my papers and the pen that I need? How should I defend myself," he asked Judge Amin.
Wearing a white shirt and charcoal jacket, Saddam had earlier strolled cheerfully into the court in Baghdad's green zone carrying a copy of the Koran and uttering the Arabic greeting, "Peace to the people of peace".
Saddam, who denies charges of murder, torture, forced expulsions and illegal imprisonment, is on trial with seven co-defendants for the deaths of 140 men and boys following a botched assasination attempt on him in the Shia Muslim town of Dujail in 1982.
All eight could be sentenced to death by hanging if the court finds against them, but the trial on the Dujail charges is the first of as many as a dozen trials Saddam could face for the 35 years he held power in Iraq.
The eight on trial are Saddam; his then-intelligence chief, Barazan Ibrahim; his vice-president, Taha Yassin Ramadan; Awad Hamed al-Bandar, the head of his court; and four senior Ba'ath party officials in the Dujail region, Abdullah Kazim Ruwayyid, Ali Dayim Ali, Mohammed Azawi Ali and Mizhar Abdullah Ruwayyid.
The 40-day break since the opening hearing was requested by the accused men's legal team to allow them more time to prepare a defence.
The defence lawyers were today joined by Ramsey Clarke, the former US attorney general, and had indicated that they would argue for an adjournment of up to three months to give them more time to prepare for the case.
Judge Amin adjourned the trial for week, when witnesses for the prosecution could give evidence for the first time.
Staging a credible trial of the former president in Baghdad has proved a political and security nightmare for the Iraqi government and its US backers.
A moment of silence was today held in the court as a mark of respect for two of Saddam's defence lawyers who have been murdered since the October hearing.
A plot was yesterday uncovered to assassinate Judge Amin while residents of Dujail told Reuters at the weekend that death threats had already been made against some witnesses.
The entire defence team has meanwhile threatened to boycott the trial unless they received guarantees of US protection.
Mr Clarke, who in the past has also spoken in defence of Slobodan Milosevic and opposed the Vietnam war, has said he intends to challenge the legality of the court in his capacity as an adviser to the defence team.
"A fair trial in this case is absolutely imperative for historical truth. It is absolutely essential that the court is legal in its constitution," he told Reuters.
SHIA ANGER
Shia politicians expressed anger yesterday as the trial of Saddam Hussein was adjourned for another week, after three hours of procedural wrangling and testimony from the first prosecution witness.
The chief judge, Rizgar Amin, was accused by one senior Shia adviser in government of being "unduly indulgent" of mass murderers, after he adjourned the case so that the defence team could replace two lawyers who had been murdered and one who had fled abroad. The adviser said: "We are fed up with having to delay justice for our people."
With one eye on the approaching elections, members of the ruling Shia establishment want to push on with the trial.
"It's been two years since Saddam was captured. He should have been tried before now to give his victims the chance to see justice done and move on with their lives," said Haitham al-Khadim, an aide to Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, the leader of the most powerful Shia party, the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq.
Saddam and seven former colleagues are charged with crimes against humanity, the first charges prepared against the former Ba'athist rulers.
Amid the violence against judges and lawyers and intimidation of witnesses, human rights and justice groups have called for the trial to be delayed, or moved abroad or to the safer Kurdish north.
All defendants have pleaded not guilty. They face the death penalty if convicted.
The defence team, which yesterday was joined by the former US attorney general Ramsey Clarke, said they needed more time to meet clients and study evidence.