OMEN
07-26-2006, 09:02 PM
BAGHDAD: Saddam Hussein, weak from a hunger strike, said that he has been forced to attend his trial for crimes against humanity and that he would prefer to be shot than hung if found guilty.
The defence team for the former leader and seven co-accused boycotted the latest session in a controversial trial which is approaching its conclusion.
"It was not my choice to come to court," Saddam, wearing a dark suit and holding a Koran, told the judge.
"I wrote you a petition clarifying that I don't want to come to court, but they brought me against my will. . . I have been on a hunger strike since July 8."
Saddam, 69, had been fed through a tube in a hunger strike to protest against what he sees as an unfair trial.
The man who ruled Iraq with an iron fist said he would rather face a firing squad than death by hanging if convicted.
"I advise you as an Iraqi if you were in a circumstance in which you have to issue a death penalty you have to remember that Saddam is a military man and in this case the verdict should be death by shooting not by hanging," he told the judge. Saddam appointed himself to head the army and he was never actually trained or served as a soldier before taking power.
The hunger strike did not take the edge off Saddam's trademark defiance, which has been exhibited in tirades throughout the trial in a court house in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone, home to some of his former palaces.
Although his once imposing voice was weak and despite losing some weight, the former Iraqi leader behaved angrily at times.
"Even if I don't eat for 10 months, I will have my full power and health," he said. "Did you think Saddam Hussein would not be able to speak after 20 days?"
Saddam and his co-defendants are charged with the killing of 148 Shi'ite men and teenagers after an attempt on his life in the town of Dujail in 1982.
His hunger strike and the boycott staged by his lawyers have further tarnished a trial that has witnessed the killing of three defence lawyers and the resignation of the first chief judge to protest what he said was government interference.
"Half my lawyers were killed. Is it too much for you to protect them?," Saddam asked chief judge Raouf Abdel Rahman.
When the ousted president's court-appointed lawyer was about to read his closing argument, Saddam interrupted him: "The argument was written by a Canadian American agent."
Saddam's lawyers have accused the US military of force feeding him to end the strike.
"In hospital they were feeding me through my nose to my stomach," said Saddam.
Three other defendants are also staging a hunger strike. They are thought to be his half-brother and former intelligence chief Barzan al-Tikriti, former vice-president Taha Yassin Ramadan and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, chief of the Revolutionary Court under Saddam.
"I reject standing before this court and letting it decide what it likes. We don't recognise a government appointed by occupation or this court."
When the court appointed lawyer spoke about teenagers who allegedly died under interrogation during a crackdown after the assassination attempt on Saddam in Dujail, the ex-president raised his hand and interrupted. "Is he a lawyer for Saddam Hussein or the prosecution?," he asked.
That lawyer refused to be filmed and spoke through a voice scrambler, fearful for his life in a country that has been ravaged by an insurgency and sectarian violence since the ex- president was toppled in 2003.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/inl/images/masthead/reuters.gif
The defence team for the former leader and seven co-accused boycotted the latest session in a controversial trial which is approaching its conclusion.
"It was not my choice to come to court," Saddam, wearing a dark suit and holding a Koran, told the judge.
"I wrote you a petition clarifying that I don't want to come to court, but they brought me against my will. . . I have been on a hunger strike since July 8."
Saddam, 69, had been fed through a tube in a hunger strike to protest against what he sees as an unfair trial.
The man who ruled Iraq with an iron fist said he would rather face a firing squad than death by hanging if convicted.
"I advise you as an Iraqi if you were in a circumstance in which you have to issue a death penalty you have to remember that Saddam is a military man and in this case the verdict should be death by shooting not by hanging," he told the judge. Saddam appointed himself to head the army and he was never actually trained or served as a soldier before taking power.
The hunger strike did not take the edge off Saddam's trademark defiance, which has been exhibited in tirades throughout the trial in a court house in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone, home to some of his former palaces.
Although his once imposing voice was weak and despite losing some weight, the former Iraqi leader behaved angrily at times.
"Even if I don't eat for 10 months, I will have my full power and health," he said. "Did you think Saddam Hussein would not be able to speak after 20 days?"
Saddam and his co-defendants are charged with the killing of 148 Shi'ite men and teenagers after an attempt on his life in the town of Dujail in 1982.
His hunger strike and the boycott staged by his lawyers have further tarnished a trial that has witnessed the killing of three defence lawyers and the resignation of the first chief judge to protest what he said was government interference.
"Half my lawyers were killed. Is it too much for you to protect them?," Saddam asked chief judge Raouf Abdel Rahman.
When the ousted president's court-appointed lawyer was about to read his closing argument, Saddam interrupted him: "The argument was written by a Canadian American agent."
Saddam's lawyers have accused the US military of force feeding him to end the strike.
"In hospital they were feeding me through my nose to my stomach," said Saddam.
Three other defendants are also staging a hunger strike. They are thought to be his half-brother and former intelligence chief Barzan al-Tikriti, former vice-president Taha Yassin Ramadan and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, chief of the Revolutionary Court under Saddam.
"I reject standing before this court and letting it decide what it likes. We don't recognise a government appointed by occupation or this court."
When the court appointed lawyer spoke about teenagers who allegedly died under interrogation during a crackdown after the assassination attempt on Saddam in Dujail, the ex-president raised his hand and interrupted. "Is he a lawyer for Saddam Hussein or the prosecution?," he asked.
That lawyer refused to be filmed and spoke through a voice scrambler, fearful for his life in a country that has been ravaged by an insurgency and sectarian violence since the ex- president was toppled in 2003.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/inl/images/masthead/reuters.gif