|
Subject to any appeal, Saddam could hang if he is
found guilty over his role in the killing of 148
Shi'ite Muslims in the village of Dujail after a
1982 assassination attempt.
Asked if he expected a verdict on Nov. 5, Zebari, a
member of the ethnic Kurd minority persecuted under
Saddam, said:
"I really hope there could be a verdict as soon as
possible because I think it has run its course."
A guilty verdict could reflect positively on Bush as
a vindication of his policy to overthrow Saddam at a
time when dwindling public support over Iraq could
cost the Republicans control of Congress in next
week's voting.
The court was set up by a U.S. occupation
administration after the 2003 invasion to try Iraqi
leaders charged with crimes during the rule of
Saddam, captured by U.S. forces in December 2003.
Earlier this month, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, a
Shi'ite Islamist, said he hoped legal proceedings
would be short and that Saddam would be found guilty
and sentenced to death soon.
In September, the government sacked the chief judge
trying Saddam on genocide charges, saying he had
abandoned his neutrality by stating Saddam was not a
dictator. This prompted criticism by international
legal groups, which say government pressure and
sectarian violence make a fair trial impossible.
Saddam is also on trial for alleged genocide against
the Kurds in a 1988 military campaign which
prosecutors say killed 180,000 Kurds, some by
gassing.
His defence lawyer Khalil al-Dulaimi made a brief
appearance in court on Monday to present 12 demands
for ending a boycott under way since September, but
walked out when chief judge Mohammed al-Ureybi
rejected them.
Proceedings continued with a court-appointed lawyer.
Saddam's cousin "Chemical Ali" Hassan al-Majid, and
five other Iraqi commanders are on trial with Saddam
for their roles in the anti-Kurdish Anfal (Spoils of
War) campaign. Saddam is facing at least a dozen
separate trials stemming from his rule. (Additional
reporting by Ahmed Rasheed and Ibon Villelabeitia)
Today, Tuesday, October 31, Kurd tells Saddam
trial of mass execution
Iraqi troops dragged prisoners to a pit dug out
of the desert sands and shot them two-by-two under
the lights of a waiting bulldozer, a survivor of
Saddam Hussein's alleged genocide said Tuesday.
The ousted Iraqi leader and his co-defendants sat
impassively in the dock in the Iraqi High Tribunal
in Baghdad as five witness added their testimony to
the growing body of evidence of a mass slaughter of
civilian prisoners.
Speaking from behind a curtain, the first witness
told the court he had been among 35 Kurdish
detainees taken into the desert near the western
Iraqi city of Ramadi in April 1988, during Saddam's
"Anfal campaign".
He had been arrested and held for three days before
he and his fellow detainees were put blindfolded
into bus a driven into the desert at sunset.
"When I managed to get my blindfold off, I saw them
bringing two every time and shooting them, then
throwing them in the ditch. The ditch was full of
dead and still living bodies," he added.
"A brutal guard in a green uniform jumped down into
the ditch and started shooting those who were still
alive and cursing them.
"There was a mechanical shovel on the ridge whose
headlights shone on the ditch to help the
executioners," he added.
One of the prisoners was forced to say the prayer of
Shahada, in which Muslims pledge allegiance to God
before death, he said. One of those killed was the
witness's cousin, Saleh Amin Ahmed.
"I managed to run away, exploiting the absence of a
guard. While I was running I saw and heard gunfire
and the shrieks of those being killed in cold
blood," he told the court.
The escapee headed east out of the desert and
managed to eat some dry wheat from a field outside
Ramadi, where he met shepherds. He returned to his
village of Tob Khana the next year and found it
razed to the ground.
Prosecutors say that the Anfal campaign was a
genocidal massacre of 182,000 Kurdish civilians.
Saddam and his alleged henchmen insist it was a
legitimate counter-insurgency operation against
separatist guerrillas.
Saddam and two of his six fellow accused face the
death penalty if convicted. Judge Mohammed al-Oreibi
al-Khalifa adjourned the case until November 7, by
which time Saddam may already be facing the gallows.
On Sunday, Saddam and seven co-defendants are due to
hear the verdict in a previous trial in which he was
accused of ordering the deaths of 148 Shiite
villagers in revenge for an attempt on his life.
This case also carries a possible the death penalty.
A second witness told Tuesday of how he and fellow
detainees were taken out of a detention centre in
Tob Zawa in northern Iraq on a fleet of 10 buses.
The driver told the prisoners they were being taken
to Mosul, but when they stopped in a remote area to
nightfall, the detainees rebelled.
"There was a guard brandishing a Kalashnikov," he
told the court.
"One of the detainees tried to snatch the gun from
him but failed. The guards from the other buses
started shooting at our bus. I threw myself from the
open door of the bus and started running away," he
said.
"I saw my friends falling like leaves from tree due
to the shooting."
The third Kurd to testify, 46-year-old housewife
Bafrin Fattah Ahmed, said that on August 10 she was
blinded by poison gas and lost touch with her son
and husband when warplanes attacked the village of
Hiran.
She received hospital treatment and regained the
sight in one eye
The chief judge Mohammed Al-Oreibi set November 7 as
the date for holding the next hearing
Reuters | AFP
Top |
® 
