Saddam's half-brother denies Shia crackdown

Saddam Hussein’s half-brother, former intelligence chief Barzan Ibrahim, has denied taking part in a crackdown against Shiites in the 1980s as he testified today for the first time in the trial of the former Iraqi leader and members of his regime.

Ibrahim is the latest of the eight defendants in the trial to undergo direct questioning by the judge and chief prosecutor. Saddam is expected to testify later today.

The former Iraqi leader and his regime officials are charged with killing 148 Shiites, illegal imprisonment and torture in a crackdown launched after an assassination attempt against Saddam in the Shiite village of Dujail in 1982.

They face possible execution by hanging if convicted.

In previous sessions, Dujail residents have testified that Ibrahim personally participating in torturing them during their imprisonment at the Baghdad headquarters of the Mukhabarat intelligence agency, which Ibrahim headed.

One woman claimed Ibrahim kicked her in the chest while she was hung upside down and naked by her interrogators.

Ibrahim, wearing a traditional red scarf on his head, told chief judge Raouf Abdel-Rahman that he visited Dujail on the day of the July 8, 1982 shooting attack on Saddam’s motorcade and on the following day – but then “never visited it again after that.”

He said the General Security agency handled the investigation into the shooting, not his own Mukhabarat. He claimed he ordered the release of Dujail residents who had been detained.

“I chided the security and party officials for detaining those people,” he said. “I shook their (the released detainees’) hands and let them go.”

Reading from a statement, Ibrahim said he has been badly treated since his arrest by US forces in April 2003. He said that when he was captured, his American interrogators asked him “how Oasma bin Laden came to Iraq” and met with Saddam.

“They asked dozens of such questions with imaginary bases and assumptions,” he said.

He also said he has asked for the past two years for medical tests “but no one has listened to me.”

Ibrahim has made such statements previously in court – but the testimony is the first opportunity for the judge and prosecutors to directly question him. Earlier this week, six other defendants went through similar questioning, one by one, and all insisted on their innocence.

One of the defendants, Awad al-Bandar – the former chief judge of the Revolutionary Court – admitted on Monday that he sentenced the 148 Shiites to death but he maintained they received a fair trial and had confessed to trying to assassinate the former Iraqi leader.

His comments echoed those of Saddam in an earlier session. Last month, Saddam admitted in court that he ordered the 148 Shiites put on trial before his Revolutionary Court, but said it was his right to do so because they were suspected of trying to kill him.

Prosecutors are trying to show Saddam’s regime sought to punish the town’s civilian population.

Hundreds of people were arrested – including entire families, with women and young children – and detained for years.

They argue the Revolutionary Court trial was “imaginary,” with no chance of defence, and have produced documents showing 10 juveniles – including some as young as 11 and 13 – were among those sentenced to death.