Relatives of defendants testify in Saddam trial

Relatives of defendants in the trial of Saddam Hussein and former members of his regime took the stand in Baghdad today as the defence tried to knock down charges of crimes against humanity that carry a possible death penalty by hanging.

The testimony came a day after chief judge Raouf Abdel-Rahman announced the charges against Saddam and his seven co-defendants, bringing the seven-month-old trial to a new, intensified level.

Under the Iraqi system, that effectively put the burden on proof on the defence to exonerate the defendants since the charges represent the accusations that the panel of five judges believe that the evidence so far has supported.

Two sons of defendant Abdullah Kazim al-Ruwayyid told the court today that their father and brother, Mizhar – who is also a defendant – had nothing to do with a crackdown launched against Shiites in the town of Dujail in the 1980s. The wife of one of Mizhar’s brothers and two of Mizhar’s uncles also took the stand.

Abdel-Rahman read the charges yesterday after months of hearing prosecution witnesses describe torture at the hands of Saddam’s intelligence agents and documents allegedly tying the Iraqi leader to the crackdown.

Calling Saddam before him, Abdel-Rahman accused him of “crimes against humanity” by ordering a “systematic, wide-scale attack” on Dujail – including the killings of women and children, torture and the imprisonment of 399 people. He read similar charges against each of the remaining defendants.

Intelligence and security forces swept up hundreds of Dujail residents following a July 8, 1982 assassination attempt on Saddam in the town. Abdel-Rahman listed the names of 17 people – including women and children – out of some 46 that prosecutors say died in prison or from torture during interrogation during the sweep.

A group of 148 Shiites were sentenced to death by Saddam’s Revolutionary Court for the assassination attempt, but Abdel-Rahman dismissed the court as a show trial, saying it was “swift” with “no possibility of appeal” and that some of those sentenced had already died in prison.

The two al-Ruwayyids and Mohammed Azzawi were the only defendants to appear in court today.

The three – former local officials in Saddam’s ruling Baath Party - sat silently during the testimony, frowning and looking glum.

They are accused of sending letters to security officials informing on Dujail residents after the assassination attempt, leading to the deaths of some of those they pointed out to security forces.

The relatives all spoke from behind a curtain and their names were not announced to protect them from reprisals. The sons said three pieces of land owned by the family were among the farmlands razed in retaliation for the attack on Saddam.

“Mizhar is a simple man. He just works as a telephone operator. Everybody in Dujail loves him,” one of them insisted.

Mizhar al-Ruwaayid’s sister-in-law said Mizhar was forced to stay at the Dujail telephone office where he worked for 15 days after the shooting against Saddam because of a general alert in the town. “I was delivering food to him every day, since my parent’s house was closer to the office than his own house,” she said.

At times, the testimony turned into shouts and bickering between defence lawyers and Abdel-Rahman after the judge told one of the witnesses not to refer to Saddam as “Mr. President”.

“We express our rejection over the court’s interference in choosing the witness’s words,” chief defence lawyer Khalil al-Dulaimi said. “The defence team is insisting that President Saddam Hussein is the legal and legitimate president of Iraq and he is so despite the (US) invasion.

“What is built on falsehood is falsehood,” he said, referring to defence arguments that the court is illegitimate because it was created under the US military presence in Iraq.

“This is a pure criminal case, we don’t have anything to do with politics,” Abdel-Rahman shouted at the defence lawyers. “Your witness is a simple man with nothing to do with politics who is here to try to show your clients’ innocence. Ask him questions.”

Since the trial began, the defendants have tried to dismiss the court as illegitimate. Saddam yesterday defiantly refused to enter a plea to the charges and insisted he remained Iraq’s president. Abdel-Rahman entered a not-guilty plea on his behalf, and the other defendants pleaded innocent.

The other main defence argument has been that the crackdown was a legal response to the shooting attack against Saddam, carried out by members of the Iranian-backed Shiite Dawa Party.

But in reading the charges, Abdel-Rahman appeared unconvinced by the argument so far. He underlined the women and children who died in the crackdown – reading their names repeatedly as he recited the charges against each defendant.

The prosecution has argued that the crackdown went far beyond the actual perpetrators of the shooting to punish the entire population of Dujail.

US officials observing the court have said a verdict could come in August. If sentenced to death, the defendants would have the opportunity of appeal - raising the possibility of further months of legal proceedings.

The special tribunal is preparing to start a second trial against Saddam on genocide charges in a 1980s military campaign against the Kurds known as “Anfal” in which an estimated 100,000 people were killed.