Iraqi prosecutors submitted to the court trying Saddam Hussein on Tuesday what they said was an execution order signed by the former Iraqi dictator, as his lawyers once again stormed out of the tribunal.
Documents were presented linking Saddam to the trial and execution of 148 villagers from Dujail, north of Baghdad in some of the most significant documentary evidence to have been presented by the prosecution so far.
Saddam’s lead lawyers, Khalil al-Dulaimi and Khamis Ubaydi, had walked out of the courtroom at the start of the hearing after the judge rejected their pleas for proceedings to be postponed and for the judge and chief prosecutor to be dismissed for alleged bias against the accused.
They were immediately replaced by court-appointed lawyers who represented Saddam during an earlier defence counsel walkout.
The hearing, markedly quieter than previous sessions that threatened to descend into chaos owing to noisy interventions by the defendants, lasted two hours before being adjourned until Wednesday.
One of the documents, dated June 16, 1984, and allegedly signed by Saddam Hussein, confirmed the death sentences passed by a tribunal two days earlier. The disappearence of the men from Dujail followed a 1982 assassination attempt on Saddam in the village.
Prosecutors also submitted documentary evidence to show Saddam’s office had ordered that the sentences be carried out, along with a letter, dated March 23, 1985, confirming the executions had taken place and a doctor was on duty to confirm the deaths.
The prosecutors said the villagers had been sentenced after a mock court case in which they did not even appear.
Saddam Hussein and seven former cohorts, who were all present at Tuesday’s hearing, themselves face death by hanging if they are convicted by the court.
The resumption of the trial came against a background of deadly civil unrest in Iraq, which included the bombing of the tomb of Saddam’s father in his hometown of Tikrit.
The trial, which opened in October, resumed after a stormy hearing on February 14, when a defiant Saddam announced he was on hunger strike amid chaotic scenes.
Dulaimi told Agence France-Presse on Monday that the deposed president had ended his fast to protest court proceedings.
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.
The trial is currently in the second phase of depositions by witnesses testifying over events during the Dujail massacre.
Saddam’s lawyers have continued to demand the sacking of chief judge Abdel Rahman, charging he was biased and prejudiced.
Ramsey Clark, the former United States attorney general who is helping to defend Saddam, has submitted a motion recently claiming the judge ”is not impartial and has a manifested bias against the defendant”.
He has ”repeatedly violated standards of fair trial, human rights and basic due process in the courtroom”, according to Clark.
The defence claims Abdel Rahman is biased because he is a native of the Kurdish village of Halabja, the target of a 1988 chemical attack in which about 5 000 people, including women and children, were killed.
Since the stern Abdel Rahman took over as the chief judge of the trial, Saddam has often been locked in heated verbal exchanges with him, often plunging the sessions into 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 a January 27 hearing, Abdel Rahman ejected Saddam’s half-brother and co-defendant Barzan al-Tikriti for disruptive behavior, an action that led to a walkout by the entire defence team.
The defendants then boycotted the next session, and although they later returned to the court — amid claims they were forced to do so — their defence counsel stayed away.
Meanwhile, the bombing of Saddam’s father’s tomb occurred at 6am (3am GMT) in the al-Arbaain graveyard in the centre of the northern town of Tikrit where Hussein al-Majid’s tomb was built by Saddam.
The explosion blasted the door and two windows of the structure, an Agence France-Presse correspondent at the site said. – AFP
