|
Video of Saddam's Questioning Released
14.6.2005
|
|
|
|
Photo : AP
former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein is seen being
questioned by investigating magistrates. It was
unclear when or where the questioning took place.
|
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- The tribunal that will put
Saddam Hussein on trial released a video Monday
showing the 68-year-old former dictator - looking
drawn and tired but dressed in a pinstriped suit -
being questioned about the killings of at least 50
Iraqis in a Shiite town.
On Tuesday, a bomb exploded outside a bank in the
northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, killing 18 people
including pensioners waiting in line and child
street vendors selling groceries, police said.
Another 53 people were wounded by the blast, said
Capt. Salam Zangana, an official at a hospital where
the victims were being brought.
The roadside bomb exploded at 9 a.m. near a line of
people waiting outside the Rafidiyan Bank in
downtown Kirkuk, 180 miles north of Baghdad, police
Col. Shiraz Mohammed said.
|
Unlike Saddam's combative appearance at his
arraignment on July 1, 2004 - the last time he was
seen on video - the new tape reveals a man who
appears a shadow of his former self.
There are heavy bags under his eyes. He often clasps
his hands and squeezes his fingers - often clutching
them together when trying to make a point. His hair
appears unkempt and he constantly runs his hand down
his face and through his beard, which has more gray
flecks in it than it did a year ago.
At least two legal officials close to the case said
the video - which was not accompanied by any audio -
was apparently made Sunday. They did not want to be
identified for security reasons.
The video was released as insurgents, many of whom
are believed to be Saddam loyalists, launched four
suicide car bombings and other attacks around Iraq
that killed at least 14 people. Twenty-two more
Iraqis were wounded after militants opened fire on
authorities trying to evacuate the injured from one
of the suicide blasts in the northern city of
Samara.
On Tuesday, a doctor said the bodies of 13 Iraqi
men, some beheaded, had been brought to a western
Baghdad hospital.
Dr. Mohammed Jawad of Yarmouk Hospital said the
bodies - either decapitated or shot in the head -
were brought to the hospital late Monday from near
Khaldiyah, a town 75 miles west of Baghdad.
Jawad said the bodies might belong to men who have
been missing since their convoy that was delivering
supplies for the U.S. military was ambushed near
Khaldiyah on Thursday. Two of the bodies were
identified as an Iraqi policeman and an interpreter,
but it was not immediately clear which company they
worked for.
Meanwhile, a car bomb exploded several hundred yards
from an armed convoy carrying a U.S. diplomat in
Baghdad on Monday, but the official was unhurt, the
embassy said. State Department spokesman Sean
McCormack said there had been an explosion but the
convoy was not the target.
Already tense relations soured further Monday
between the majority Shiites, who dominate the
government and parliament, and the Sunni Arabs, whom
many hold responsible for the insurgency.
Strong disagreements broke out over the number of
representatives the once-powerful Sunni minority
will have on a committee drafting the country's
constitution. Shiite lawmakers rejected calls for
increasing Sunni representatives from 15 to 25 on
the 55-member drafting committee. Sunnis renewed
threats to boycott and sink the charter.
Limited or no Sunni participation on the committee
would rob the charter of its legitimacy. When the
draft is put to a nationwide referendum, it is
likely that at least three of the four predominantly
Sunni Arab provinces in Iraq would vote against it,
causing the measure to fail and parliament to
dissolve.
President Bush spoke Monday with Iraqi President
Jalal Talabani and stressed the importance that a
draft of the constitution be completed. The leaders
also discussed the importance of having all groups
in Iraqi society represented in the constitutional
process, White House press secretary Scott McClellan
said.
The Iraqi Special Tribunal trying Saddam likely
issued the new video to show that it is in control
of the proceedings and to counter widespread beliefs
that it was being directed by Shiites and Kurds who
dominate the government and the 275-member National
Assembly.
Iraq's Kurdish president and the Shiite-led
government said last week that the ousted leader
could appear before the tribunal within two months.
They later backtracked after complaints from
Saddam's legal team and the tribunal, which said no
trial date has been set.
The video showed Saddam wearing a dark gray suit and
white open-collared shirt being questioned by chief
trial Judge Raid Juhi. Saddam's chief Iraqi lawyer,
Khalil al-Duleimi, can be seen sitting to his right.
Four other defendants, all members of Saddam's
administration, were also shown.
Last month, British and American tabloid newspapers
obtained and published several still photographs of
Saddam, including one showing him in his underwear.
In early June, Juhi said in an interview that
Saddam's morale had collapsed because of the charges
he faces.
"The ousted president has suffered a collapse in his
morale because he understands the extent of the
charges against him and because he's certain that he
will stand trial before an impartial court," Juhi
was quoted as saying by the London-based Asharq al-Awsat.
The former dictator faces charges that include
killing rival politicians over 30 years, gassing
Kurds in the northern town of Halabja in 1988,
invading Kuwait in 1990 and suppressing Kurdish and
Shiite uprisings.
In Amman, Saddam's lawyer said his Jordan-based
legal team was not aware that the fallen dictator
was questioned.
But Ziad al-Khasawneh said the fact it was
videotaped and released "shows the kind of justice
which the president is expected to endure during the
upcoming trial."
An announcement that accompanied the tape said
Saddam was being questioned about crimes related to
the killings of at least 50 Iraqis in 1982 in the
Shiite town of Dujail, 50 miles north of Baghdad, in
retaliation for a failed assassination attempt
against him.
Also Monday, radical anti-American Shiite cleric
Muqtada al-Sadr met with the Russian ambassador and
tribal chiefs from the insurgent hotbeds of Fallujah
and Ramadi.
The meeting between al-Sadr and Russian Ambassador
Vladimir Chamov in the Shiite holy city of Najaf,
south of the capital, seemed to be a sign of the
cleric's desire to return to active politics after
going into isolation last fall following clashes
between his militia and U.S. troops.
Al-Sadr has been trying in recent weeks to mediate
between an influential Sunni Arab association and a
Shiite militia that have traded accusations of
targeting each other's supporters and clerics.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the
United States did not ask the Russians to take any
message to the meeting, noting that the United
States wants to bring all Iraqis who have renounced
violence into the peace process.
In northern Iraq, tribal chiefs agreed Monday to
hand over terror suspects to Iraqi security forces,
Iraq's Defense Ministry said. The agreement
represents a blow to an insurgency that has been
rampant in northern areas like Mosul and Tal Afar
and is bent on derailing the new government.
"For the first time, tribal leaders in northern Iraq
agreed to turn in terror suspects to the Iraqi
security forces," the ministry said in a statement.
AP
Top |
Kurd Net
does not take credit for and is not responsible for the content of news
information on this page
|
® 