Deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein on Wednesday accepted he ordered the destruction of orchards as a reprisal for an assassination bid in a Shi’ite town, his first such admission in the turbulent trial.
As the prosecution tried to pile up documentary evidence against Saddam and his seven co-accused, it was claimed he pardoned two Shi’ites who were to have been executed for the assassination attempt in the town of Dujail.
Prosecutors led by Jaafar al-Mussawi the day earlier submitted to the court what they said was a signed execution order showing Saddam’s guilt in the killing of 148 Shi’ite inhabitants of Dujail as a reprisal.
In the last few minutes of the day’s proceedings in the trial, which has now been adjourned till March 12, Saddam said he ordered the destruction of orchards.
”I signed the order” for destroying the orchards. ”I am Saddam Hussein. At the time, I was in charge. It is not my habit to pass the buck on to others.”
Explaining the reason for ordering the destruction, Saddam said: ”It’s the right of the Iraqi state to nationalise any land for the public interest by paying a symbolic compensation. I changed the law to substantial compensation.”
He also gave a vivid description of escaping an assassination bid in Dujail.
”I came under machine-gun fire from 50m away”, he said, speaking of the ambush on his motorcade. ”Bullets passed in front of my eyes … It’s Allah who wanted to save me.”
Earlier on Wednesday, prosecutors produced a letter purportedly showing the former Iraqi dictator spared the lives of two of the 148 Shi’ites accused over the assassination bid.
The letter said the intelligence service found that the two — Ali Jaafar (50) and Jassem Mohammed (63) — had been released by mistake and were still alive. Saddam had then been asked how to proceed.
Saddam wrote back, saying: ”If luck has saved them, who am I to be tough on them?” The two were not executed. Saddam is believed to have pardoned them considering their old age.
He also said it was he who ordered the suspects involved in the assassination bid to be tried in the revolutionary court headed by co-accused Awad Ahmad al-Bander.
”I asked the suspects responsible for the assassination bid to be transferred to the court in Baghdad.
”You put al-Bander as a defendant here just because he was heading the court at that time … It was I who asked the suspects to be judged as you are doing here today.
”I am responsible. Why are you putting others in jail?” Saddam asked.
The prosecution, meanwhile, suffered a setback when one of its witnesses, former interior minister Saadun Shaker, refused to testify against Saddam. He will now face charges, the prosecutor said.
In the past 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. The defendants, if found guilty, face the death penalty by hanging.
Saddam, who for most part of Wednesday’s session sat quietly, tried to interrupt the prosecutor although stern Chief Judge Rauf Rasheed Abdel Rahman held firm.
”Just give me a little time; after all, I was your president for 35 years,” pleaded a rather subdued-looking Saddam.
Mussawi also accused three other defendants — Abdullah Khadem Ruweid, Mezhar Abdullah Ruweid and Ali Daeh Ali — of naming some Dujail residents who were later executed.
The three are former Ba’ath party officials with responsibility for the Dujail area where the villagers were massacred in 1982. The three denied having done so.
Earlier on Wednesday, the trial commenced with all the defence lawyers attending the session, except Saddam’s lead lawyer Khalil al-Dulaimi.
The defendants, all dressed in traditional clothes except Saddam, who wore a crisp, black suit, came to the court and sat down quietly.
A few minutes after the new session began, Mussawi detailed the documents again but was interrupted by Barzan al-Tikriti, Saddam’s half-brother.
”The prosecutor should stop referring to the people killed in Dujail as victims as the case is not proved yet,” al-Tikriti retorted. — Sapa-AFP