It's a comedy, rants Saddam
Quote:
OUSTED Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein denounced his trial in Baghdad as a "comedy" in his first formal testimony overnight and called on Iraqis to resist the US-led occupation, prompting the judge to order a closed session.
"I call on the people to start resisting the invaders instead of killing each other," he told the Iraqi High Tribunal, which is trying Saddam and seven co-defendants over a massacre of Shiites in the 1980s.
He also called those who destroy mosques "criminals" - a reference to the spasm of violence rocking Iraq since the destruction of a Shiite shrine in Samarra on February 22.
"My people will never accept the occupation, it is my people who elected me in a referendum and who trusted me to lead them to safe harbour and I say to my people I remain faithful to them despite the injustices of which I am a victim," Saddam said.
The trial was later adjourned for three weeks to April 5.
Saddam took the stand wearing his trademark tailored dark suit without a tie, following a rambling testimony by half-brother Barzan al-Tikriti, and said he was speaking as "the president of the republic and the commander in chief of the armed forces".
"Your rule has ended, now you are a defendant in a criminal case," chief judge Rauf Abdel Rahman told him. "This is a criminal court, we are not interested in politics."
"As far as I am concerned, I take my responsibilities to the people seriously, until such a time as the people choose someone else to represent them," Saddam answered.
"It is a comedy against Saddam Hussein and his comrades," he said at the start of his testimony.
"Oh mighty people, I am still your faithful son, oh Iraqi people ... I am still your sword, and despite what has happened to my people, to me, to my comrades because of the criminal occupants, I shall be patient," he said.
New.au
