Judge expels Saddam aides from court

TWO former Saddam Hussein aides were removed from a Baghdad courtroom for unruly behaviour yesterday on the second day of a trial over the brutal crushing of a 1991 rebellion in Iraq by Shi’ite Muslims.

The order came as a 76-year-old former Shi’ite politician testified he was falsely imprisoned for months in the aftermath of the uprising and described fellow inmates being carried back to jail in blankets after hours of torture rendered them unable to walk.

“I was later released because of the presidential pardon, but my life was already destroyed. I was dismissed from the parliament. My cotton was destroyed by the army shelling and my house was damaged,” Kamil Kanoun Abu al-Heil recalled.