Prosecutors: Saddam Approved Executions

02/28/2006

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Prosecutors at Saddam Hussein’s trial presented a document Tuesday they said was signed by the former leader approving the executions of more than 140 Shiites in southern Iraq after an assassination attempt in the 1980s.

After about two hours of hearing documents, the court adjourned until Wednesday.

The document was among several presented by chief prosecutor Jaafar al-Moussawi concerning the killings of Shiites from the town of Dujail in 1982.

A memo from the Revolutionary Court, dated June 14, 1984, announced that 148 suspects had been sentenced to death by hanging and listed their names. The prosecutor said the signature on the memo was that of the court’s head, Awad al-Bandar, one of Saddam’s co-defendants.


A document dated two days later was a presidential order approving all 148 death sentences. The paper was signed by Saddam, al-Moussawi said, displaying the document with the signature on a screen in the court room.

The sentences were passed after an “imaginary trial,” al-Moussawi told the court.

“None of the defendants were brought to court. Their statements were never recorded,” he said.

The documents were presented after Saddam’s lawyers ended their monthlong boycott of the tribunal.

The defense team’s participation appeared to vindicate the tough approach chief judge Raouf Abdel-Rahman has taken since taking over the tribunal last month, pushing ahead with the proceedings even when the lawyers - and, at times, the defendants themselves - refused to attend.

Tuesday’s session was one of the most orderly since the trial began in October. Saddam and his seven co-defendants entered the court and took their seats silently - in sharp contrast with nearly every other session, which began with Saddam and his half brother Barzan Ibrahim shouting slogans or arguing with the judge.

The former Iraqi president also ended a hunger strike he and some co-defendants started Feb. 12, two days before the last trial session, defense lawyer Khamis al-Obeidi said Sunday.

Prosecutors also displayed a March 1985 document said to be signed by Ibrahim - then the head of the Mukhabarat intelligence agency - ordering the executions to be carried out. The document also listed the 148 names.

Another document from the Revolutionary Court, dated March 23, 1985, confirmed that the executions took place.

But not all 148 were executed, and a series of documents presented by prosecutors outlined a 1987 investigation by the Mukhabarat into what happened when it was discovered that two people sentenced to die had been mistakenly released.

Investigators said 96 people were executed, and the remainder were “liquidated during interrogations.” The 96 included four people executed by mistake instead of being released - a man named Mahdi Abdel-Amir, two of his sons and his brother, the report said.

The report recommended that a Mukhabarat officer, who failed to release the Abdel-Amirs be disciplined with a prison sentence. A handwritten note that the prosecution said had Saddam’s signature approved the recommendation. It did not say how long the prison sentence was.

The report also recommended that a decree be issued acknowledging the mistake of the Abdel-Amirs’ executions and returning property rights to their families. A note by Saddam’s secretary said Saddam approved that recommendation as well.

A later Mukhabarat document showed that 10 juveniles - aged 11 to 17 at the time of their sentencings - believed to be among the 96 executed had instead been sent to a desert prison outside the southern city of Samawah.

The memo recommended executing the 10 in secret. A handwritten note in the margin of the memo, allegedly containing Ibrahim’s signature, approved the secret executions and recommended that the Mukhabarat bury the bodies “so that the (Baghdad) municipality not find out.”

“If we can guarantee this is carried out properly, then there is no objection,” the note said.

The 10 were executed in 1989, other documents showed, soon after the Mukhabarat memo.

Saddam and the seven co-defendants are on trial for carrying out torture and illegal arrests and executions in the crackdown in Dujail. They face death by hanging if convicted.

Abdel-Rahman opened Tuesday’s session by announcing that the five-judge panel had rejected a defense request that he and the chief prosecutor be removed.

Saddam’s chief lawyer, Khaled al-Dulaimi, said he would appeal and asked that Tuesday’s session be halted immediately, a request Abdel-Rahman refused. Al-Dulaimi and al-Obeidi left the court to prepare an appeal, but the remaining six members of the defense team remained.

Ibrahim stood and argued briefly with Abdel-Rahman, who repeatedly ordered him to sit down.

The defense walkout threatened the perception of fairness in the tribunal, a key issue in a trial that Iraqi and U.S. officials said would be a landmark in political progress for a country sharply torn between Sunnis and Shiites.

The defense stormed out of court Jan. 29 after Abdel-Rahman tossed out one of the lawyers for shouting. The defense then said it would boycott the trial unless Abdel-Rahman were removed, accusing him of bias against Saddam. Court-appointed lawyers sat in during sessions over the past month.

Abdel-Rahman has adopted a no-nonsense style in the court since taking over the trial in early January, replacing a previous chief judge who was criticized as being too lenient toward Saddam and Ibrahim’s frequent outbursts.

Abdel-Rahman did not hesitate to throw out defendants who shouted in the courtroom - and even proceeded with the trial in several sessions in January that the eight defendants refused to attend.

Saddam, Ibrahim and the other defendants were forced to attend the past two sessions. Ibrahim attended wearing only his long underwear in protest, and Saddam, Ibrahim and two other defendants announced at the Feb. 14 session that they were on a hunger strike.

“We are not against the judge as a person. He is an Iraqi citizen and we respect all Iraqis,” al-Obeidi said. “Our problem is with the judge’s behavior. Things will change when he changes his behavior.”