BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The judge who oversaw the
trial of 148 Shi'ite men accused of plotting to
assassinate Saddam Hussein in 1982 said in court on
Monday he had personally issued a death warrant for
them and insisted it was legal.
"They attacked the president of the republic and
they confessed," Awad Hamed al-Bandar, former head
of Iraq's Revolutionary Court, said in testimony
before the judges trying him, Saddam and six others
for crimes against humanity.
The killing of the 148 men from the Shi'ite town of
Dujail is at the heart of the case. Saddam said on
March 1 that he had ordered the trial under Bandar
which led to the executions and said this had been
an entirely legitimate procedure. |
Former dictator Saddam Hussein
Photo : AFP
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He also said farms had been razed around the town in
reprisal.
Bandar, the first of the four senior defendants to
give testimony in his own defense, followed that
argument, accusing the dead men of being part of a
plot by the Iranian-backed Dawa party to kill Saddam
during Iraq's war with Iran.
"It was provoked by Iran. They were members of Dawa.
The leadership of Dawa was in Iran," Bandar said.
The present leader of Dawa, a Shi'ite Islamist
party, is Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, whose
government has pressed for the Dujail trial to move
forward rapidly.
"The target was the head of state and we were in a
state of war with Iran," Bandar said. "He (Saddam)
was the commander of the armed forces.
"The court took two weeks. The 148 men had
confessed. It is all in the files."
In a phase of the trial that began on Sunday, four
local Baath party officials from Dujail had already
made their appearances -- three of them contesting
sworn statements the prosecution said they had made
in pre-trial proceedings.
The trial of Saddam Hussein and seven others was
adjourned on Monday until Wednesday March 15. 2006,
court officials said.
Reuters
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