BAGHDAD, October 9 ,-- Saddam Hussein's genocide
trial resumed on Monday after chaos reigned at the
last session, when he was repeatedly ejected from
the courtroom and his lawyers walked out over the
sacking of the chief judge.
The former Iraqi leader, who was kicked out of court
three times during the previous hearings, took his
seat at the start of the trial on Monday, along with
his six co-defendants.
Woman tells court Saddam
forces buried family alive
The court also heard grim testimony about conditions
at Nugrat Salman, a desert prison facility in
southern Iraq, where food shortages and polluted
water caused many Kurds who had been rounded up and
sent there to fall ill and die. |
Former dictator Saddam Hussein
Photo : AFP |
|
Two witnesses spoke about a black dog that dug up
and ate the bodies of dead prisoners.
A Kurdish woman, sitting to the left of the judges
and speaking from behind a curtain to protect her
identity, was the latest witness to give testimony
about Saddam's 1988 Anfal (Spoils of War) campaign
against the Kurds in northern Iraq.
"I know the fate of my family. They were buried
alive," she told the court through a translator. "I
would like to ask Saddam a question: 'What was the
guilt of women and children?".
The court heard that identity cards belonging to
five of her sisters had been found in mass graves in
Samawa in south Iraq.
The woman did not say how she knew her family was
buried alive but U.S.-led forensic experts have said
some victims unearthed from mass graves were still
alive when they were buried, despite having been
shot, most of them at close range.
Thousands of Kurds, including many women and
children, were taken from their villages, executed
and then dumped in mass graves in northern and
southern Iraq, prosecutors say.
Saddam's defence team are boycotting the trial in
protest at the appointment of new chief judge
Mohammed al- Ureybi after chief judge Abdullah al-Amiri
was removed by the government for saying Saddam was
"not a dictator".
Legal rights groups have said the dismissal could
hurt the trial's credibility.
The first witness to take the stand on Monday said
she did not want her name or face to be identified.
In a separate trial against Saddam, several
witnesses have testified from behind a curtain and
with their voices electronically distorted.
Saddam, 69, his cousin, Ali Hassan al-Majeed, known
as "Chemical Ali", and five former commanders face
charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity
for their role in the 1988 Anfal campaign (or Spoils
of War) that prosecutors say left 182,000 ethnic
Kurds dead or missing.
Saddam and Majeed also face a charge of genocide.
All face the death penalty. Saddam is waiting for a
verdict from a first trial, for crimes against
humanity in the killing of some 148 Shi'ite men from
the town of Dujail in the 1980s.
The Anfal trial has featured testimony from
villagers recounting their suffering during Anfal,
when Saddam's forces attacked Kurds, razing villages
and killing and displacing thousands of people.
Defendants have argued the attacks were legitimate
military strikes against Iraqi Kurds fighting
alongside Shi'ite Iran against Saddam's Sunni-led
government during the Iraq-Iran war.
The court trying Saddam for the Dujail deaths --
whose first chief judge quit, citing political
interference -- is due to reconvene on Oct. 16 to
review witness testimonies.
A senior source in the court has told Reuters a
verdict in that case is expected to be announced
within days of the session opening.
Reuters
Top |
® 