Saddam harangues judge, trial adjourned again

Former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein addresses the court. Picture / Reuters

BAGHDAD - Saddam Hussein harangued the judge at the second session of his trial before it was adjourned to grant co-defendants time to find new counsel after one of their lawyers was killed and another fled Iraq.

After less than three hours of hearings, including videotaped testimony from a witness who has since died, Judge Rizgar Mohammed Amin ordered a one-week adjournment until December 5, just 10 days before Iraq holds parliamentary elections.

Amin cited the need to find new representation for former Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan and former intelligence chief Barzan al-Tikriti. Gunmen killed one of their lawyers and another fled the country in fear after Saddam's trial opened in October. Another defence lawyer was killed separately.

The timing of the next session may open the government to criticism that it is seeking political benefit from the trial by airing the deeds of the former regime days before Iraqis vote.

With violence expected to surge ahead of the polls, security conditions may be even more precarious when the trial resumes.

Hours before today's session, a mortar landed in the "green zone" compound where the fortified court is located.

There was also a spate of kidnappings and killings in the capital, with four foreign aid workers abducted and at least two British Muslims found dead after gunmen attacked their vehicle.

The session began with Saddam displaying the same defiance he showed at the opening of the trial on October 19, when proceedings were adjourned for 40 days.

Saddam, dressed in a white shirt, dark jacket and carrying a Koran, arrived late and then upbraided the judge when asked why.

"They brought me here to the door and I was handcuffed. They cannot bring in the defendant in handcuffs," Saddam rejoined.

Amin ordered the former president and his co-defendants to be unshackled by their guards before they entered the courtroom.

Saddam complained he had had to walk up four flights of stairs because of a broken elevator in the courthouse.

"I will tell the police about this," Amin told him in the cool, polite tone he maintained during several tirades by the former president on the first day of the trial.

"I don't want you to tell them, I want you to order them," Saddam replied hotly. "They are invaders and occupiers and you have to order them."

Saddam then argued with the judge about his rights and his jailers' action in taking away his pen and paper. As his voice rose heatedly, television footage of the proceedings broke away.

The images are being broadcast by US company Court TV with a 30-minute delay to allow officials to censor the footage.

Following the killings of the defence lawyers, security for the trial is extremely tight. TV footage is not showing the faces of any defence lawyers and only one of the five judges.

Tikriti, one of Saddam's three younger half-brothers, told the judge he had cancer and that Iraq's current president and prime minister had agreed he could receive medical treatment outside the prison where he is held.

When the judge said he had not seen any request for this, Tikriti said: "This is indirect death."

Saddam and his co-accused are charged with crimes against humanity in relation to the deaths of 148 men from the town of Dujail, north of Baghdad, after an attempt to kill him in 1982.

All defendants have pleaded not guilty. They could face death by hanging if convicted.

Early in the session, Judge Amin agreed to let former US Attorney-General Ramsey Clark and former Qatari Justice Minister Najeeb al-Nauimi join Saddam's defence team as advisers.

Nauimi then challenged the court's legitimacy and said the trial should not proceed until the safety of defence lawyers was assured. The judge said the court would respond in writing.

Amin instructed prosecutors to present evidence, apparently dismissing defence motions for a further delay.

Grainy sepia-coloured video footage shot by a cameraman of Saddam's in July 1982, on the day the assassination attempt occurred in Dujail, was then shown to the court.

A clip that shows Saddam himself questioning suspects by the roadside was played several times. Saddam can be heard telling aides to "take them away separately and interrogate them".

Then the court saw videotaped testimony given by a witness in hospital late last month, just days before he died of cancer.

The witness, Wadah al-Sheikh, was an intelligence officer under Saddam and was sent to Dujail to investigate the attack.

In his sworn testimony, read out by Amin, Sheikh described how he had gone to the town and found a few bodies in the palm groves near where the assault on Saddam's motorcade took place.

He said had calculated the seven to 12 assailants had been involved, based on the number of bullet casings at the scene.

However, he said hundreds of people from Dujail had been seized by Saddam's security forces after the attack.

"They rounded up 400 people from the town -- women, children and old men," he said in his testimony. "Saddam's personal bodyguards took part in killing people."

- REUTERS