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Saddam forced to attend his Trial , next
session to resume tomorrow
13.2.2006
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A fiery Saddam Hussein
is back in court after boycotting his trial on
charges of crimes against humanity, but said he had
been forced to appear.
"Down with the traitor, down with traitors, down
with Bush.. long live the ummah (Islamic nation)...
long live the ummah..long live the ummah..," roared
the ousted Iraqi dictator as soon as he arrived in
court on Monday.
"I was forced into the courtroom," Saddam angrily
told chief judge Rauf Rasheed Abdel Rahman.
Barzan al-Tikriti, his half-brother and former
secret police chief, frequently interrupted the
session as guards were seen pushing him down into
his seat in the dock.
The surprise appearance jolted the proceedings after
the Iraqi strongman's chief attorney told reporters
earlier Monday that Saddam and his seven
co-defendants planned to continue skipping the
hearings.
"No international law can force people to attend
trials," Khalil al-Dulaimi, head of Saddam's defense
team, told AFP.
"Unless you change the law and turn it into the law
of the jungle."
First the defense lawyers and then Saddam himself
walked out of the court in protest during a stormy
session on January 29 in protest at the new
presiding judge's decision to forcibly expel Barzan
for being disruptive.
All eight defendants face the death penalty if
convicted over the massacre of more than 140 Shiites
after an attempt on Saddam's life in 1982 in the
town of Dujail. They pleaded not guilty on the first
day of the trial in October.
The high-profile trial has frequently descended into
farce, with stormy sessions featuring long outbursts
or walkouts by the defendants and their counsel as
well as the resignation of the previous chief judge.
Ahead of Monday's court session, Dulaimi said the
defense team had a number of conditions before they
would return, including replacing presiding Judge
Rauf Rasheed Abdel Rahman and prosecutor Jaafar al-Mussawi.
He also called for improved security for defense
counsel and continuous television transmission of
the trial without periodic cuts to ensure it is
"transparent and fair". |
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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Dulaimi, who calls the entire court illegitimate,
warned the proceedings were dangerously adrift.
"They don't know what to do, because for a court you
need a judge, a prosecutor, defense and defendants
-- if two of them are not here, then there is no
more court," he said.
Adding further drama, a member of the Amman-based
legal team of the defendants said on Sunday that the
eight men had decided to stage a hunger strike to
protest attempts to force them to appear in court.
But this was swiftly denied by al-Dulaimi who told
AFP in Amman: "All the reports about a hunger strike
by Saddam and his co-defendants are without
foundation."
A court official said three officials from the
former regime will testify Monday -- Hassan al-Obedi,
a former intelligence official, Ahmed Hussein
Khudeir, a former presidential chief of staff and an
anonymous third official.
The trial has now moved to its second phase, from
victims testifying about abuses of security forces
to witnesses, including regime officials, shedding
light on the events of that period.
International human rights activists believe that
Abdel Rahman has a tough job ahead of him.
"The Iraqi High Tribunal is at a crossroads," said
Richard Dicker, director of the New York-based Human
Rights Watchs International Justice Program.
"The court is fully entitled to discipline lawyers
for misconduct. But if the court takes the drastic
step of dismissing defendants' chosen attorneys and
imposes new lawyers who the defendants reject, the
judges are taking an enormous risk with the fairness
of the trial."
The Iraqi judge presiding over the trial of Saddam
Hussein adjourned the session on Monday. It will
resume on Tuesday 14.February.2006.
AFP
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