Chaos as Saddam trial resumes
Saddam Hussein’s trial quickly collapsed into chaos after resuming today with one defendant dragged out of court and the defence team walking out in protest.
The former Iraqi leader was then escorted out after he shouted “down with traitors” and refused his new court-appointed defence lawyers.
The new chief judge in the trial, Raouf Abdel-Rahman, sought to show a tough control over the court and pressed ahead with the proceedings even after the opening drama, hearing three prosecution witnesses.
After the four-and-a-half hour session, the judge adjourned until Wednesday, though he said if that day turns out to be a public holiday, the trial will resume Thursday. The Islamic new year is approaching, but its exact date depends on the sighting of a new moon to start the lunar month.
But the stormy session today was sure to increase doubts over the trial’s fairness. Critics have already questioned the court’s independence after Abdel-Rahman was brought in as chief judge in a shake-up this month, sparked when his predecessor resigned amid complaints he was not doing enough to rein in Saddam’s frequent courtroom outbursts.
The trial’s fairness is a vital concern in a nation that is trying to bring reconciliation between its Sunni Arab minority, which dominated Iraq under Saddam, and the Shiite Muslim majority that now controls the government.
This morning’s proceedings, the first session in over a month, disintegrated almost immediately into shouting and insults.
First, Barzan Ibrahim – one of Saddam’s co-defendants – was pulled out by guards after he stood and called the court “the daughter of a whore,” while Saddam shouted ”Down with traitors” and “Down with the Americans”.
Then Abdel-Rahman threw out one of the defence attorneys for arguing with him. The rest of the defence team stormed out in protest as the judge shouted after them: “Any lawyer who walks out will not be allowed back into this courtroom.”
Abdel-Rahman appointed four new defence lawyers, but Saddam stood and rejected them.
Holding a copy of the Koran and other papers under his arm, he said he wanted to leave. After an argument with the judge – during which guards pushed Saddam back into his chair – Abdel-Rahman ordered guards to escort the former Iraqi leader out of the room.
Two other defendants also rejected their new lawyers and were allowed to leave.
When the dust settled, the proceedings resumed with only four of the eight defendants present, and none of their original lawyers.
The court began hearing an anonymous female prosecution witness, who testified from behind a beige curtain, as several earlier witnesses have done to protect them from reprisals. The new defence lawyers declined the opportunity to cross examine the witness.
The witness, a woman, told the court how she was arrested several days after the assassination attempt on Saddam. She said her interrogators removed her Islamic headscarf and gave her electric shocks to her head.
“I thought my eyes would pop out,” she said. Sixteen other members of her family were also arrested, and seven of them were killed in detention - including her husband, who she said was tortured to death.
The second woman to testify gave similar testimony, saying she saw women tortured after she was detained. “I have seen things that I could not have believed. Children crying and mothers tortured. I've seen a blind girl crying while she was being tortured,” she said, sobbing. “Has humanity witnessed anything like this in any part of the world?”
The day’s final witness was a man, who said he was detained when he was six years old in the sweep that followed the attack on Saddam in Dujail.
The delayed television feed of the proceedings – which is in the judges’ control – was cut off right after Ibrahim’s initial outburst. It resumed some time later, cutting out the removal of Ibrahim and the subsequent fight with the lawyers but showing the judge’s arguments with Saddam.
Saddam and his seven co-defendants are charged in the deaths of about 140 Shiite Muslims following an assassination attempt against the former Iraqi leader in the Shiite town of Dujail in 1982.
The defendants could face death by hanging if convicted.
Abdel-Rahman obviously came into the session aiming to impose control on a trial that has been plagued by delays and frequent outbursts by Saddam and Ibrahim, who is Saddam’s half-brother and former intelligence chief.
Heading into this session, Saddam’s defence team said they would file motions questioning the court’s independence and legitimacy because of the shake-up among the judges.
Abdel-Rahman was brought in after his predecessor, Rizgar Mohammed Amin, resigned in mid-January. Politicians had complained about the slow pace of the proceedings and Amin’s patience in the face of Saddam and Ibrahim’s frequent outbursts.
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