Defiant Saddam pleads not guilty, trial adjourned 19.10.2005

Former dictator Saddam Hussein
Photo : REUTERS

Grey-bearded and wearing a dark jacket over an open-necked white shirt, a proud Saddam harangued Amin from his seat inside a shoulder-high white metal pen on the floor. The other defendants sat quietly in other pens around him.

Asked by the judge for his full name, Saddam, 68, shot back: "You know me. You are an Iraqi and you know who I am.

"I won't answer to this so-called court ... Who are you? What are you?" Saddam said. "I retain my constitutional rights as the president of Iraq."

Amin said: "You are Saddam Hussein al-Majid ... former president of Iraq," at which point Saddam raised his finger to interrupt, saying testily: "I did not say former president."

Saddam was the last to enter the marble-floored court before the trial began shortly after midday (0500 EDT). He asked the jailers escorting him to slow down as he walked to his spot facing a panel of five judges. He carried a copy of the Koran.

"This is the first session of case number one, the case of Dujail," Amin told the court, referring to the town where bloody reprisals followed an attempt on Saddam's life on July 8, 1982.

"NOT GUILTY"

The judge told the defendants the charges included murder, torture and forced expulsions, saying the crimes could carry the death penalty, and informed them of their rights, including a fair trial. In turn, Saddam first, they pleaded not guilty.

Then followed brief arguments by the defense and the prosecution, before the judge agreed to an adjournment, although he did not give the three months requested by Saddam's lawyer.

Iraq's government, struggling for popularity ahead of elections in December, had pressed for an early trial.

International observers, including several human rights groups, were in the court inside Baghdad's fortress-like Green Zone to monitor a trial some warned beforehand might end up creating the impression of "victor's justice".

The event, broadcast around the world with a 30-minute delay, was tightly choreographed and Iraqi lawyers said it bore little similarity to usual Iraqi criminal proceedings. The court and its chief judge appeared intent on showing fairness.

Amin presided from a dais above the defendants. Of the judges, only his face was shown on TV, and he conducted all questioning. Bronze scales of justice hung behind him.

The trial has started nearly two years after Saddam was captured hiding in a hole in the ground near where he was born. The charges stem from the 1982 attack when gunmen linked to the Shi'ite Dawa Party tried to kill Saddam as his armored convoy drove through Dujail, 60 km (35 miles) north of Baghdad.

Apart from the men said to have been killed in reprisal, women and children are alleged to have been removed from Dujail, taken to Abu Ghraib prison and later interned in a desert camp near the Saudi border where many ultimately "disappeared".

OTHER CASES IN PIPELINE

Iraqi investigators hope the Dujail case will be merely the first of up to a dozen cases to be brought against Saddam.

When the trial resumes, prosecutors will try to show that Saddam, in retaliation for the botched attempt assassination, ordered his henchmen to hunt down, torture and kill scores of men from Dujail, on that July day and the years that followed.

The defense is expected to ask the judges for a dismissal, contending that the court, set up in December 2003 when Iraq was under formal U.S. occupation, is illegitimate.

Saddam's lawyer, Khalil al-Dulaimi, is likely to argue that his client, as president, was immune from all criminal charges.

In London, legal expert and barrister Jonathan Goldberg told CNN he had doubts about the fairness of the proceedings. "It's probably not a fair trial by American or European standards .... The whole thing is a bit of a public relations circus," he said.

In Geneva, the head of a global legal watchdog said it had concerns over the independence and impartiality of the trial.

"(We do) have concerns on whether this is an independent and impartial tribunal, particularly as there is a very close involvement by the U.S.-led coalition," said Nicholas Howen, secretary-general of the International Commission of Jurists.

Across Iraq, however, many were thrilled to finally see their former oppressor in the dock.

In Dujail, Laith Abd Mahdi, a middle-aged resident said: "This is the end of every tyrant. He hurt us, hurt my relatives and hurt my closest friends. Death is not enough for him."

But in Tikrit, Saddam's hometown, a group of several dozen young men chanted and marched for Saddam under banners reading: "Down with the occupation and the puppet government."

If found guilty, Saddam could be hanged. Tribunal statutes say any sentence should be carried out within 30 days of appeals being exhausted. That means Saddam could be executed before being tried on other charges such as genocide against the Kurds.

Reuters 

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