Saddam Hussein refused to attend his own trial in Baghdad on Wednesday morning after declaring he had been mistreated by an ”unjust court”, a court official said.
The former Iraqi dictator was today talking to his defence lawyers about whether to return to the hearing. He is being tried for the torture and killing of 140 Shia residents from the town of Dujail in 1982 in retaliation for an assassination attempt.
At the end of Tuesday’s proceedings, Saddam threatened to boycott the trial, complaining that he and his seven co-defendants had been mistreated.
”I will not come to an unjust court,” he said. ”Go to hell.”
An unnamed court official told Reuters the trial could go ahead without the defendants present, but the presiding judge, Rizgar Amin, was keen for Saddam to attend the hearing.
Saddam, dressed in a dark suit and holding a Qur’an, complained on Tuesday that he and his co-defendants were tired and had been deprived of opportunities to shower, have a change of clothes, exercise or smoke a cigarette.
”This is terrorism,” he said.
The trial has been frequently interrupted by violent outbursts. On Monday, Saddam declared he was not afraid of execution, while his half-brother and one of the co-defendants, Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti, swore and spat at the judge.
Last week Saddam berated the judge for saying he would ask US soldiers to loosen the former president’s shackles. ”You do not ask them, you order them,” Saddam said.
Tuesday’s outburst came at the end of a harrowing session when an unidentified woman witness told of repeated beatings, torture and sexual humiliation in his regime’s detention centres when she was a teenager.
But neither ”Witness A”, nor another woman who took the stand later, was able to identify Saddam as directly responsible for crimes against humanity.
All five witnesses — the two women and three men — who gave evidence on Tuesday had their voices disguised and were hidden to protect their identity.
The son of one of the guards at Saddam’s trial was kidnapped this morning.
The eight-year-old boy was seized in front of his house in Baghdad. It is not yet known whether the kidnapping is connected to the trial.
Two defence lawyers for Saddam were shot dead by unidentified gunmen before the trial began. – Guardian Unlimited Â