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Hussein jousts with Iraqi judge over his
rights in a court hearing
22.7.2005
By JOHN F. BURNS
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Former dictator
Saddam Hussein
Photo : NY Times |
BAGHDAD, Iraq, -
A new court videotape broadcast on Thursday showed a
caustic but emaciated Saddam Hussein complaining to
an investigative judge about limits on access to his
lawyer and about the entire process of holding him
prisoner while Iraqi prosecutors prepare to try him
for atrocities committed during his 24-year rule.
"Right now, I'm a prisoner - that's what is being
said," Mr. Hussein said in the tape aired by
Dubai-based Al Arabiya television, which provided
the first opportunity for the public to hear the
former dictator speaking since a court appearance
last July. "It's a game, as you'll see. I am a
prisoner of the Iraqi government, but that
government was appointed by the Americans." |
Moments later, Mr.
Hussein interrupted the judge, Munir Hadad, as he
read from a legal document outlining the former
Iraqi leader's right to a lawyer.
"When do I see my lawyer?" Mr. Hussein asked,
motioning to Khalil al-Dulaimi, an Iraqi defense
attorney hired by the Hussein family. "Is it right
that I see my lawyer only when there is a hearing,
and that I know that there is to be a hearing only
when I'm already in it? Is this the law?"
Judge Hadad listened pensively, but appeared at one
point to run out of patience.
"I want to say this for the historical record," the
judge said, interrupting Mr. Hussein. "We have been
listening to you for 35 years. We are an independent
court. We have not yielded to pressure from anyone.
The people elected the government."
"No, no," Mr. Hussein retorted, in a mocking tone,
waving his hands dismissively. "You are a man of the
law, and you should understand."
Resuming the argument later, he pointed to the
judge's robe, black with white trim, and said, "When
you wear that robe, you should be independent,
whether you are facing me, or the foreigners, or any
Iraqi."
Another tape of Mr. Hussein testifying was released
by court officials last month, but that one was
silent. The new tape showed one major change in the
68-year-old former leader since last year's court
appearance - a marked weakening of his voice, to the
point of huskiness.
Mr. Hussein wore a dark suit, but was tieless, in
accordance with rules set at a prison camp near
Baghdad airport where American military guards watch
over more than 80 high-ranking officials of the
ousted government. American officials have said that
the ban on wearing ties was set to prevent suicide
attempts, not to humiliate Mr. Hussein, who was a
fastidious dresser when he was in power.
At last year's appearance, Mr. Hussein appeared to
have lost at least 30 pounds since he disappeared
from public view in April 2003, when he fled Baghdad
ahead of American troops and lived a fugitive
existence until his capture eight months later. On
the new tape, he appeared thinner still, with his
once well-groomed hair curling to his open collar,
and his gray beard straggly. He appeared anxious,
frequently jabbing his hands and following
occasional verbal thrusts at the judge with periods
of intense silence and darting eyes.
"I beg your pardon," he said at one point, when the
judge admonished him for interrupting.
Nothing in the tape indicated when the questioning
occurred, and Al Arabiya, a channel seen widely
across the Middle East, gave no indication of how it
was acquired. One theory was that the Iraqi Special
Tribunal might have released the tape to rebut
suggestions by Ahmed Chalabi, a deputy prime
minister, that the tribunal has been infiltrated by
former members of Mr. Hussein's ruling Baath Party,
and that they plan to spare the former Iraqi
leaders, in part by delaying their trials.
Mr. Chalabi's allegations have thrown the tribunal
into turmoil just as it enters the final stages of
preparing for the first of its trials
On Sunday, Raid Juhi, one of the judges Mr. Chalabi
wants to dismiss, announced that Mr. Hussein will go
on trial, probably in mid-September, on the first of
about a dozen charges for which he is being
questioned. That case centers on the execution of
150 men and youths implicated by Mr. Hussein's
Revolutionary Court in an attempt to assassinate Mr.
Hussein at the town of Dujail in 1982.
The videotape broadcast on Thursday showed Mr.
Hussein being questioned on the deportation in the
late 1980's of Shiite Kurds from the district of
Khanaqin, 120 miles northeast of Baghdad on the
Iranian border. The plight of the deportees, many of
whom disappeared, is part of a broader investigation
into the mass killing of Iraqi Kurds during Iraq's
eight-year war with Iran.
At his news conference on Sunday, Mr. Juhi said the
tribunal expects to refer Mr. Hussein to a separate
trial for his involvement in the Kurdish massacres
within weeks.
A tribunal official who demanded anonymity because
of his concern for his job has said that Mr. Juhi
advanced the announcement of the Hussein trial after
Mr. Chalabi prepared letters demanding the dismissal
of 28 judges, prosecutors and officials because they
were former Baathists.
Nine of them have already been dismissed, and 19
others, including Mr. Juhi and at least some of the
judges named to sit on the three five-member panels
that will preside at trials, are waiting to see
whether Mr. Chalabi, who heads the government's de-Baathication
committee, will press his campaign.
The outcome has been deferred while Iraqi
legislators review a draft of a new statute that
will adopt the tribunal, originally created under an
American occupation statute, as a fully Iraqi
institution. One proposal under discussion, put
forward by moderates in Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari's
government, is to amend a provision in the American
statute that excluded Baathists from working for the
tribunal, and substitute the standard used for all
other Iraqi government agencies, which bar only the
four highest ranks of former Baathists. Through
aides, Mr. Chalabi has vowed to block the move.
www.nytimes.com
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