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Disruptive Saddam watches trial on TV

SADDAM HUSSEIN watched his own trial on television yesterday after all of the eight defendants refused to attend the session, chaired by a tough new chief judge who has cracked down on the deposed leader's theatrical outbursts.

Facing three rows of empty seats in court, Raouf Abdel Rahman, the Kurdish chief judge, said that he had decided not to call Saddam and four of his main co-defendants after they staged a boycott in protest at their eviction from court on Sunday.

Judge Abdel Rahman said that three other defendants, minor Baath party functionaries from the village of Dujail, had been "behaving in a chaotic manner" and were also not being summoned.

Under pressure to produce a swift trial that could help Iraq to overcome its violent past, an empty courtroom was exactly what the tribunal had been trying to avoid. But faced with constant disturbances by Saddam and his defence team, Judge Abdel Rahman found this week that he could impose order only by removing Saddam and his half-brother.

The judge has shown that he will press on despite the defence team's tactics.

Yesterday's witnesses described how Saddam's half-brother, Barzan al-Tikriti, oversaw their brutal interrogation, backing up previous statements that the former head of Iraq's intelligence service was directly implicated in the bloody retribution against Dujail, a Shia village where 143 people were killed after a botched attempt on Saddam's life in 1982.

Posted by: SoulRiser
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Posted in: News on February 2, 2006 @ 12:00 AM

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