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Saddam trial resumes, to hear from two
witnesses
22.12.2005
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BAGHDAD, Dec 22
(Reuters) - The trial of Saddam Hussein on charges
of crimes against humanity resumed in Baghdad on
Thursday and was expected to hear from two
witnessesw before adjourning for around a month.
The former Iraqi president entered the heavily
fortified courtroom shortly before 11:30 a.m. (0830
GMT), carrying a copy of the Koran and accompanied
by his seven co-defendants.
On Wednesday, Saddam ended the sixth session of the
stop-start trial by saying he had been beaten and
tortured in U.S. custody, a claim dismissed as
"highly ironic" by the U.S. State Department, who
accused him of grandstanding.
In one of the more conciliatory statements he has
made since the trial began on Oct. 19, Saddam also
said those guilty of the alleged torture described
by the witnesses should be punished, apparently
distancing himself from the accusations.
"When I hear that any Iraqi has been hurt it hurts
me too," the 68-year-old former leader said. "The
wrongs that were done to those people were wrong
and, according to law, those who did it should get
what they deserve." |
Former dictator Saddam Hussein
Photo : AFP
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Saddam and his co-defendants are charged with
ordering the killing of 148 people from the mainly
Shi'ite village of Dujail, north of Baghdad, in the
1980s.
Prosecutors say Saddam ordered the killings in
reprisal for a failed bid to assassinate him in the
village in 1982. Scores of families from Dujail were
rounded up and shunted between jails around Iraq for
four years after the attack.
Reuters
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