The turbulent trial of Saddam Hussein and seven former cohorts resumes on Tuesday with the ousted dictator ending a hunger strike and his lawyers considering lifting their boycott of the court.
After a raucous 12th hearing on February 14, where a defiant Saddam announced that he was on a hunger strike amid chaotic scenes, Chief Judge Rauf Rasheed Abdel Rahman had adjourned the trial to February 28.
But Saddam’s lead lawyer Khalil al-Dulaimi said on Monday that the deposed president has ended his fast called to protest court proceedings and indicated the defence team could be ready to start attending the trial again.
”I met with my client for seven hours on Sunday. At our request he had earlier ended the hunger strike he had been on for 11 days and he has lost four to five kilos,” Dulaimi said.
”He is doing okay,” the lawyer said, adding that the defence team asked him to end his fast because of fears for his health.
The hunger strike was the latest in a series of courtroom stunts by Saddam and his ex-cohorts since their trial on charges of crimes against humanity opened in October.
The trial has frequently run into trouble, with stormy sessions featuring long outbursts or walkouts by the defendants and their counsel as well as the resignation of the previous chief judge and the killing of two defence lawyers.
Saddam and the other defendants face the death penalty if found guilty of the killing of more than 140 people from the town of Dujail in 1982 in retaliation for an assassination bid against him.
Dulaimi, who has himself boycotted proceedings and been away from the court for a month, has returned from Amman to Baghdad and was considering with other members of the defence team whether to attend Tuesday’s hearing.
He said he has asked the tribunal to suspend Tuesday’s hearing ”because of the security situation in the country and because of procedural questions”.
The court’s leading judge ”has promised to meet all our just requests and has asked us to attend the hearing on February 28 to settle all the problems”, he said.
Court spokesperson Judge Raed al-Juhi said the trial will go ahead on Tuesday.
”God willing … it will commence on the fixed date despite the requests of the defence counsel, unless it is held up by unforeseen reasons,” Juhi said, referring to the precarious security situation.
Chief public prosecutor Jaafar al-Mussawi also said he expects the defence counsel to turn up on Tuesday. ”We expect the defence lawyers to be present, including Khalil al-Dulaimi, but not the foreign lawyers,” he said.
Saddam’s lawyers have continued to demand the sacking of Chief Judge Abdel Rahman, saying he is biased and prejudiced.
Ramsey Clark, the former United States attorney general who is helping defend Saddam, submitted a motion recently claiming the judge ”is not impartial and has a manifested bias against defendant” and has ”repeatedly violated standards of fair trial, human rights and basic due process in the courtroom”.
It claims Abdel Rahman is biased because he opposed Saddam’s government and because he is a native of the Iraqi Kurdish village of Halabja, the target of a 1988 chemical attack by Iraqi warplanes. About 5 000 people, including women and children, were killed in the attack, aimed at crushing a Kurdish rebellion.
Since the stern Abdel Rahman took over as the chief judge of the trial, Saddam has often ended in heated verbal exchanges with him, often plunging the sessions in utter chaos.
During the February 14 session, as the judge pounded his gavel to restore order, Saddam told him to ”take that hammer and knock yourself on the head”.
At the January 27 hearing, Abdel Rahman had ejected Saddam’s half-brother and co-defendant Barzan al-Tikriti for disruptive behaviour, an action that triggered a cascade of events resulting in the entire defence team as well as all of the defendants boycotting the next session.
Although the defendants later returned to the court — amid claims they were forced to do so — their defence counsel has stayed away. — Sapa-AFP