The trial of deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and his former cohorts on charges of crimes against humanity was adjourned to February 13 after all defendants boycotted Thursday’s hearing.
The absence of Saddam and his seven co-accused was the latest setback to mar the unruly trial since it opened in a blaze of publicity in October, almost two years after the capture of the ousted president.
”Because of the persistence of Saddam Hussein, Barzan al-Tikriti, Taha Yassin Ramadan and Awad al-Bandar not to attend, the court has decided not to call them for this session and to review their opposition,” said chief judge Rauf Rasheed Abdel Rahman at the opening of the hearing.
He said he decided to start the hearing without the other four accused who were behaving ”in a chaotic manner” outside the courtroom prior to the session — leaving three rows of empty black seats in the dock.
Saddam and his co-accused are charged with torture and murder over the massacre of more than 140 Shi’ites from the village of Dujail in the 1980s. If convicted they face the death penalty.
After barely an a hour and a half, the judge adjourned the case until February 13 following testimony from two witnesses. It was only the 10th hearing since the case opened.
The high-profile trial has frequently descended into farce, with stormy sessions featuring long outbursts by the defendants, boycotts by some of the accused and defence lawyers and the resignation of the chief judge.
Saddam, his lawyers and four other defendants were also absent from Wednesday’s hearing after a chaotic first session under new judge Abdel Rahman on Sunday which saw the ousted dictator storm out of the courtroom in Baghdad’s high-security Green Zone.
The boycotting defence team has laid out 11 conditions for its return, including the sacking of the judge and the switching of the trial ”to a country which can offer security”.
It declared that Abdel Rahman must ”be removed and cease to have anything to do with the accused because he shows them great hostility”.
Saddam’s half-brother Barzan Ibrahim Hassan al-Tikriti, former vice-president Taha Yassin Ramadan and former judge of the revolutionary court Awad al-Bandar joined the ousted president in boycotting the session.
On Wednesday, five people gave testimony, relating the chilling torture tactics which they had endured or witnessed at the hands of the old regime.
The judge, whose tough approach has courted fresh controversy, had maintained that the trial would continue in any case despite the boycott, with the remaining defendants to be tried in absentia.
Barzan, the former head of the secret police under Saddam, featured prominently in Wednesday’s testimony, with one female witness describing how he had presided over her torture and humiliation.
”Barzan personally supervised my stripping and then kicked me three times on my naked chest. I still feel the pain and for many years I was unable to breathe,” the woman said from behind a curtain.
The trial has already come under attack from human rights activists who have cast doubts over its fairness after the previous presiding judge Rizkar Mohammed Amin quit last month.
Several members of parliament and government officials had publicly criticized Amin for what they viewed as his lenient treatment of Saddam and his co-defendants.
The appointment of Abdel Rahman, a magistrate from outside the chamber, is also believed to have irked other judges.
Abdel Rahman (64) is vice-president of the criminal court in the northern town of Arbil and helped found the human rights organisation of the Kurdish autonomous region in 1991.
He was twice arrested by the Iraqi government and at one point was tortured so badly he was partly paralyzed.
Abdel Rahman was born in Halabja, the Kurdish town bombed by Saddam’s forces with chemical weapons in 1988 — another of the events for which Saddam could be tried later.
Saddam (68) was captured near his hometown of Tikrit in December 2003 following the US-led invasion of Iraq in March of that year. – AFP
