Defiant Saddam says forced to return to Iraqi court

BAGHDAD - Saddam Hussein has returned to court after a two-session boycott, launching at once into a tirade against the new chief judge and complaining he had been forced to attend his trial.

In a resumption of chaotic hearings, two of his former senior aides told the chamber they were forced to appear as witnesses. One of them accused the chief prosecutor of being a former member of Saddam's intelligence services, throwing a new twist into an unpredictable trial.

Saddam slammed his fist on the railing of his metal pen as he berated no-nonsense chief judge Raouf Abdel Rahman.

"You don't have the right to sit on that chair because you are ignorant of the law," he told the judge, a member of the Kurdish ethnic group Saddam is accused of killing and torturing.

The court was later adjourned until Tuesday.

The toppled Iraqi leader refused an offer of court-appointed lawyers to replace his defence team, which walked out of the court last month to protest against the tough new chief judge.

Saddam, who still calls himself the president of Iraq, has boycotted the last two hearings since he and several of his seven co-accused staged a walkout on January 29.

He and his half-brother Barzan al-Tikriti quickly went into attack mode on Monday.

"This is not a court, this is a game," said Saddam. "I was forced into the courtroom. Exercise your right and sentence me in absentia," he told the judge.

Saddam and his co-accused are charged with the killing of 148 men from the mostly Shi'ite town of Dujail in reprisal for a bid to assassinate Saddam there in 1982.

The trial has already been marred by the resignation of the first chief judge and the killings of two defence lawyers.

Two former aides of Saddam told the court they had been forced to appear as witnesses, reinforcing the concern of some human rights groups that a fair trial is impossible in Iraq.

Hassan al-Obeidi, a former intelligence director, and Ahmed Khudayir, the ex-head of Saddam's office, had both been in detention and said they did not want to testify.

Khudayir said he was blindfolded and handcuffed when he was brought to the court, where most of the judges, fearing for their lives, refuse to identify themselves or be filmed.

"I was brought here by force and I refuse to testify."

Atrocities

Prosecutors hope testimony from former senior officials who served under Saddam will help establish a chain of command from the ousted president to atrocities on the ground.

In the Jordanian capital Amman, Saddam's defence team said on Monday they had made a formal request to the court to see him despite a ban on visits after they walked out of his trial in protest against the chief judge.

They said a letter was sent on Sunday renewing a request to see Saddam for the first time since the defence stormed out of court on January 29 when Abdel Rahman ejected a member of the team and Barzan for refusing to be quiet.

"We request your immediate approval of a meeting between President Saddam Hussein and his counsel of choice and your assurance that there will be no further interference with his right to meet with his chosen lawyers," said the letter sent by the Amman-based defence team to the court.

Iraqi officials have said the trial will stand out as an example of justice in postwar Iraq but much of the focus has been on Saddam's battles with the judge, not witnesses' testimony.

A judge read out extensive testimonies on Monday by Iraqis who said they were victims of the crackdown on Dujail, the incident upon which Saddam's main charges rest.

Most of the testimony recounted tales of entire families being arrested, including young children, women and the elderly who claimed they were tortured in intelligence headquarters and prison before being banished to a desert detention centre.

"My brother was executed and we never got his body. I only found out after the regime fell," said one testimony.

Wearing a coat over a traditional robe and clutching a Koran, Saddam interrupted the testimony and dismissed it as politically motivated.

Barzan, once one of the most feared men in Iraq as Saddam's intelligence chief, fumed as he yelled at the judge. He then sat down on the ground with his back to the exasperated judge and removed his shoes.

A lawyer for the plaintiffs spoke of the risks of holding such a politically charged trial in Iraq, where Saddam supporters are leading an insurgency that has killed thousands.

"Some of my clients were threatened and about to be liquidated. The latest problem was the kidnapping of nine people from my client's families," the lawyer said.

- REUTERS