Ousted Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein on Tuesday told the court trying him on charges of crimes against humanity that he and his co-defendants have launched a hunger strike.
”We have been on a hunger strike for three days,” Saddam declared as the trial resumed for its 12th hearing since its opened in October. ”Long live the great Arab nation” and ”long live the mujahideen,” he shouted.
The start of the hearing was again marked by heated exchanges between defendants and presiding judge Rauf Abdel Rahman, who has taken a tough line since taking over the trial after his predecessor resigned in January.
”You kick out our lawyers, you bring in witnesses by force and those that testify against us are anonymous — is there a trial like this anywhere else in the world,” shouted former vice-president Taha Yassin Ramadan.
As the judge pounded his gavel to restore order, Saddam told him to ”take that hammer and knock yourself on the head”.
After further arguments, the judge finally called the first witness, an anonymous former member of the intelligence services who testifed from behind a screen.
”It’s like a TV serial, it has to continue,” said Saddam contemptuously from the dock.
Saddam’s lead defence lawyer Khalil al-Dulaimi, who together with the rest of the defence team is boycotting the hearings, called the trial a ”farce” and charged that his client was tricked into appearing in court on Monday.
On Tuesday, a total of three officials from Saddam’s regime are expected to testify about the events surrounding the massacre of Shiites from the village of Dujail in the 1980s for which Saddam and his seven co-accused have been charged.
The eight defendants face the death penalty if convicted on charges including murder and torture over the massacre, which followed an attempt on Saddam’s life in 1982 in Dujail. They have all pleaded not guilty.
The three witnesses are former minister of culture and personal aide to Saddam, Hamad Yussef Hamadi, former intelligence official Fadel Mohammed, and an anonymous witness.
For the first time on Monday, the court heard testimony from Saddam aides — chief of staff and an intelligence official — after hearing from victims of the regime during previous hearings.
Both witnesses, however, said they had been forced to testify and did not want to take the stand against their ”president”.
Much of Monday’s three-hour session was dominated by Saddam and his half brother Barzan al-Tikriti, the former head of the intelligence service, who voiced anger at being dragged back to the courtroom after a boycott.
At the January 27 hearing, new presiding judge Abdel Rahman ejected Barzan for disruptive behavior, an action that provoked a cascade of events that resulted in the entire defence team as well as all of the defendants boycotting the next session of the trial on February 2.
Court spokesperson Raed al-Juhi said the judge decided to implement article 171 of the criminal code and compel the defendants to attend their trial.
”The trial was very transparent with respect for the human rights of the defendants,” he told reporters on Monday.
The defendants now have court-appointed lawyers after the defence team walked out of the January 29 session in protest at the judge’s expulsion of Barzan. – AFP
