Saddam witness says 'executed' people still alive

BAGHDAD - A witness for Saddam Hussein appeared to dispute prosecution allegations that 148 people were executed after a failed assassination bid in 1982, telling the court today that some of them were still alive.

The anonymous man, testifying from behind a curtain in the courtroom in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone, suggested the survivors fled abroad after the attempt on Saddam's life but returned after his overthrow in 2003.

"Some of the people, who it was said at the time were executed because of their role in the assassination attempt against Saddam, came back to Iraq after the American occupation," he said.

"Some of them came from Iran, others came with American tanks," he added.

Saddam and seven co-defendants are accused of crimes against humanity for bloody reprisals that the prosecution says led to the deaths of 148 men and teenagers after the attempt on his life in Dujail, a mainly Shi'ite Muslim town north of Baghdad.

If convicted they face possible death by hanging.

One of the defence lawyers told the court one of their witnesses had been killed a few days ago but did not elaborate.

Another defence witness, a former guard of the toppled leader, said he was wounded when gunmen opened fire at Saddam's 25-car convoy near Dujail.

He said he drove Saddam's car but that the Iraqi leader had swapped to another vehicle after suspicions he might be targeted.

"I was in the convoy in an official armoured vehicle and I stopped and started firing at the attackers," he said, like many other defence and prosecution witnesses sitting behind a curtain to protect his identity. "I was shot in the leg."

The defence, which started its case in mid-May, earlier presented as witnesses former senior figures in Saddam's government who said they and other high-ranking officials were subjected to several assassination attempts at the time.

Last week, former Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz, in his first public appearance in three years, accused the now ruling Shi'ite Islamist Dawa Party of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki of trying to kill him in Baghdad in the 1980s.

Both the accused and witnesses have linked Shi'ite Iran, where many Dawa leaders were based, to the plot against Saddam, who comes from Iraq's once dominant Sunni Arab minority.

The witness who claimed some of those presumed killed more than two decades ago were still alive, said he was born in Dujail but now lived in Jordan.

"I am ready to make a list of their full names now," he told the court.

Judge Raouf Abdel Rahman gave him a sheet of paper and the witness appeared to write a list of names on it.

He then told the prosecutor: "I am ready to take you, if you provide enough security, to Dujail and let you meet them and have lunch with them."

After heated exchanges with witnesses and defence lawyers, Abdel Rahman threatened to hold closed court sessions in future.

All the defendants -- including senior Saddam-era officials and local Baath Party figures -- have pleaded not guilty or, like Saddam, were ruled to have so pleaded after contesting the US-backed court's legitimacy.

- REUTERS