Saddam says he's not afraid of execution

Saddam Hussein told the special court trying him today that he was not afraid of execution, and suggested that the first witness against him needed psychiatric treatment.

Following the witness’s testimony, Saddam defended his actions and told the court that he understood the pressures upon it in his trial. He and his seven co-defendants could be executed if convicted in the deaths of more than 140 Shiites in 1982.

“When I speak I speak like your brother,” he said.

“Your brother in Iraq and your brother in the nation. I am not afraid of execution. I realise there is pressure on you and I regret that I have to confront one of my sons. But I’m not doing it for myself. I’m doing it for Iraq. I’m not defending myself. But I am defending you.”

He added that: “I want you to be the shooters and the swords against the enemy army.”

When the witness, Ahmed Hassan Mohammed, spoke out, Saddam told him: “Do not interrupt me, son.”

“If it’s ever established that Saddam Hussein laid a hand on any Iraqi, then everything that witness said is correct,” he said.

He also told the court that he “would like (the witness) to be examined by an independent medical institution".