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Saddam not present at trial session
1.2.2006
By HAMZA HENDAWI |
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BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Saddam Hussein was not
present at a new session of his trial Wednesday and
his lawyers boycotted the proceedings, demanding the
removal of the chief judge they claim is biased
against the former Iraqi leader.
The session was opened to the public after Chief
judge Raouf Abdel-Rahman held a half-hour closed
session, barring press and television from the
courtroom. It was not clear whether Saddam was
brought in for closed proceedings.
But the former Iraqi leader and four other
defendants were not present when the public was
allowed in. Only three defendants attended, with
court-appointed defense lawyers.
Chief prosecutor Jaafar al-Moussawi asked the judge
to force all defendants to attend. Abdel-Rahman
ruled that the court proceedings would continue, but
that the request would be considered in the next
hearings.
Saddam's defense team have said they would not
attend the trial until Abdel-Rahman is removed. The
former president and four co-defendants have refused
to work with the replacement lawyers installed by
Abdel-Rahman during a stormy session on Sunday.
Court officials would not immediately say what
occurred in the morning's closed session.
Saddam's chief attorney Khaled al-Dulaimi, who
stayed in the Jordanian capital Amman on Wednesday,
criticized the closed session and said he did not
know if the former Iraq leader was there.
"It's dangerous to hold a closed-door hearing. Our
clients may be forced to attend, they may coerced
and this is illegal," al-Dulaimi told The Associated
Press. "The trial is unfair and the judge is acting
on behalf of the prosecution, which means that he
has lost impartiality."
The defense boycott is the latest problem to plague
Saddam's tumultuous trial, which in its previous
eight sessions saw numerous delays, a shake-up in
the judges and outbursts by Saddam and Barzan
Ibrahim, his former intelligence chief and the top
co-defendant. |
New chief judge Raouf Abdel-Rahman presides over the
trial of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein and
seven co-defendants
Photo: AP
Former dictator Saddam Hussein
Photo : AFP
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In Sunday's session, Abdel-Rahman tried to bring
control to the court, throwing out one defendant and
a defense lawyer. The entire defense team walked out
in protest, and Saddam was escorted out after he
rejected new court-appointed attorneys.
The defense team accuses Abdel-Rahman, a Kurd, of
having a "personal feud" with Saddam because the
judge was born in the village of Halabja, which was
subjected to a 1988 poison gas attack allegedly
ordered by Saddam. Some 5,000 Kurds were killed in
that attack, including several of Abdel-Rahman's
relatives.
Speaking Wednesday on Al-Jazeera television, al-Dulaimi
also claimed that Saddam's regime tried Abdel-Rahman
in absentia and sentenced him to life in prison in
1977. He said the judge was a member of a Kurdish
opposition party that "was an enemy to my client."
Al-Dulaimi's claims could not be immediately
confirmed.
"During our search in the archives, we have found
that (Abdel-Rahman) has a personal and political
feud with president Saddam Hussein and the (Baathist)
command," al-Dulaimi said.
He said he presented a motion to the tribunal to
remove the judge and that the defense would not
attend if the motion is refused.
Saddam and co-defendants are on trial for the
killing of more than 140 Shiites after a 1982
attempt on the ex-president's life in the town of
Dujail north of Baghdad. They face death by hanging
if convicted.
Arab media reports claimed Abdel-Rahman was detained
and tortured in the 1980s by Saddam's security
agents. Efforts to contact Abdel-Rahman were
unsuccessful.
However, another judge who is not part of the Dujail
trial said Abdel-Rahman suffered permanent injuries
to his back and one of his legs due to torture. The
judge spoke on condition of anonymity because of the
sensitivity of the Saddam case.
AP
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