Saddam Allowed to Attend New Trial Session

"Saddam Trials"

05/17/2006

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Defense lawyers put a series of witnesses on the stand in the trial of Saddam Hussein on Wednesday, trying to show that several low-level Baath Party officials had no role in a crackdown against Shiites in the 1980s.

Saddam, who faces a possible death sentence if convicted on charges of crimes against humanity, appeared jovial in the session, smiling as he entered and joking with the judge when one of his co-defendants, Mohammed Azawi Ali, shouted that he had nothing to do with the crackdown in the Shiite town of Dujail.

“Dujail’s residents are known for their hot blood,” the former Iraqi leader said after Ali’s outburst, drawing a smile from chief judge Raouf Abdel-Rahman.

He even stood and made a point in favor of the prosecution in an argument that broke out when prosecutors objected to testimony by a relative of Ali on the grounds that he was only 7 when the Dujail crackdown was launched in 1982.


“The man was 7 years old at the time and is 30 now, it’s a long period,” Saddam said. “Imagination is part of a child’s nature ... so that could lead him to give testimony based on imagination, and that would lead to injustice.”

The judge allowed the testimony.

Now in its third day, the defense is focusing on witnesses on behalf of three low-level defendants in the case - Ali, Abdullah Kazim al-Ruwayyid and his son Mizhar, who were Baath Party officials in Dujail.

Abdel-Rahman had barred Saddam and the other three defendants from attending Tuesday’s session, saying it was not necessary since the witnesses did not concern them.

But he changed his mind for Wednesday’s session, telling the court that all the defendants would be allowed to be present in case their names came up in testimony.


Saddam and the seven former members of his regime have been charged with crimes against humanity for the crackdown, in which hundreds of Dujail residents were imprisoned, some were tortured and 148 were killed. The defendants face possible execution by hanging if convicted.

The crackdown was launched after shots were fired on Saddam’s motorcade in the town on July 8, 1982.

In Wednesday’s session, three witnesses testified on behalf of Abdullah al-Ruwayyid - including one of his nephews - speaking from behind a curtain to protect their anonymity.

One of the witnesses, a Dujail resident, said he saw Abdullah al-Ruwayyid leaving Dujail the day after the assassination attempt to return to his unit of the People’s Army, a Baath Party militia, in the northern city of Mosul.

“I saw him a month later, and never heard from any Dujail residents that he took part in any arrests with the security forces,” the witness said.


Three other witnesses then took the stand to testify on Ali’s behalf, including his wife and a member of his tribe.

The tribesman said Ali was arrested the day of the attack on Saddam and briefly detained until then-intelligence chief Barzan Ibrahim - one of the top defendants in the trial - ordered his release. He said cousins of Ali who were members of the Shiite Dawa Party, which was behind the shooting attack, were also arrested.

Ali’s wife, also speaking from behind a curtain, said Ali was later removed from the Baath Party because of his cousin’s links to Dawa.

In the charge sheet announced Monday, Abdel-Rahman accused the two al-Ruwayyids, Ali and a fourth defendant of sending letters to security forces the day of the attack informing on Dujail residents. Some of the people they named - including women and children - later died from torture or harsh prison conditions or were among the 148 people sentenced to death and executed for the assassination attempt.

Iraqi experts authenticated their handwriting in the letters, though the four deny writing them.

Saddam and other top defendants have argued that the crackdown was a legal response to the assassination attempt. But in the case of the lower-level defendants, the defense is trying a different tack, arguing that they were not involved at all in the sweep of arrests against Dujail residents.

On Tuesday, a series of relatives of the al-Ruwayyids took the stand, making similar arguments and depicting the family as victims in the crackdown. They said some of the family’s lands were among those razed by security forces in retaliation for the assassination attempt.

The burden of proof has effectively been thrown onto the defense to clear their clients after Abdel-Rahman on Monday accused Saddam and his seven co-defendants of crimes against humanity, including killings, torture and unlawful imprisonment of men, women and children, based on the prosecution evidence so far in the 7-month-old trial.

The seriousness of the charges raises a strong possibility of death sentences - by hanging - for at least some of the defendants if convicted, particularly Saddam and his former intelligence chief Barzan Ibrahim.

U.S. officials observing the court have said a verdict could come as soon as August. The defendants have the right of appeal, which could extend the proceedings for months.