Saddam co-defendant admits sentencing 148 to death

A former judge from Saddam Hussein’s regime today insisted that 148 Shiites he sentenced to death in Iraq were given a proper trial, trying to defend himself on charges of killing the men in a crackdown in the 1980s.

The question of the prosecution of the Shiites is a key point in the Baghdad trial of Saddam Hussein and seven former members of his regime.