Saddam, Other Defendants Boycott Trial

By HAMZA HENDAWI

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Saddam Hussein and four other defendants refused to attend at a new session of their trial Wednesday and their lawyers boycotted the proceedings, demanding the removal of the chief judge, who they claim is biased against the former Iraqi leader.

Chief judge Raouf Abdel-Rahman pressed ahead with court-appointed defense lawyers and only three defendants present. Five prosecution witnesses were heard before the 4 1/2 hour session was adjourned until Thursday.

One witness, a woman, testified that she was arrested by Saddam’s security forces and tortured in prison. She said she was stripped naked, hung by her feet and kicked repeatedly in the chest by Barzan Ibrahim, Saddam’s intelligence chief at the time and the top co-defendant in the trial.

"What crime have we all committed to go through this agony?" she said, speaking from behind a beige curtain to preserve her anonymity.

Abdel-Rahman, a Kurd, kept things brisk, telling witnesses and lawyers to get to the point. His no-nonsense style underlined his determination to move on with the landmark trial despite the turmoil surrounding the court.

But if proceedings continue without most of the defendants – including Saddam – or any of their chosen lawyers, it could damage the fairness of a trial meant to be a landmark in the political progress of sharply divided Iraq.

The judge ordered the proceedings closed for the first half-hour, barring press and television from the courtroom. It was not clear whether Saddam was brought for the hearing, and court officials did not say what took place.

When the session was later opened to the public, Saddam and four other co-defendants were not present.

The initial defense team chosen by Saddam and his seven co-defendants have petitioned the tribunal to remove Abdel-Rahman, saying they will not attend until that happens. The former Iraqi leader and four other defendants have refused to work with the replacement lawyers.

The defense has accused the judge of having a "personal feud" with Saddam because he was born in the village of Halabja, which was subjected to a 1988 poison gas attack allegedly ordered by Saddam. Some 5,000 Kurds were killed in that attack, including several of Abdel-Rahman’s relatives.

"The judge is an enemy to my client," Saddam’s chief attorney Khaled al-Dulaimi, who stayed in the Jordanian capital, Amman, on Wednesday, told The Associated Press. "I told the court that the chief judge shouldn’t be allowed to preside over the hearings because he can’t be fair in this case."

Al-Dulaimi also claimed that Saddam’s regime tried Abdel-Rahman in absentia and sentenced him to life in prison in 1977. He said the judge was a member of a Kurdish party that was opposed to Saddam and so "holds political animosity with the defendant."

Al-Dulaimi’s claims could not be immediately confirmed. When a defense lawyer raised the issue at the end of Wednesday’s hearing, Abdel-Rahman said the court had yet to receive a formal note asking for his removal.

Arab media also reported that Abdel-Rahman was detained and tortured in the 1980s by Saddam’s security agents. A judge in the tribunal but not on the current trial said Abdel-Rahman suffered permanent injuries to his back and one of his legs due to torture. The judge spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the Saddam case.

Saddam and co-defendants are on trial for the killing of more than 140 Shiites after a 1982 attempt on the ex-president’s life in the town of Dujail, north of Baghdad. They face death by hanging if convicted.

In the open session, chief prosecutor Jaafar al-Moussawi asked the judge to force all defendants to attend. Abdel-Rahman said he would consider the request in future hearings.

Abdel-Rahman then told the three remaining defendants the court had appointed lawyers for them.

"I have a lawyer. I paid 16 million dinars (about $8,000)," exclaimed one defendant, Abdullah Kazim Ruwayyid.

Abdel-Rahman raised his hand sharply to interrupt him.

"If your lawyers attend the next sessions, they will take their positions as your attorneys," he said. "Until they attend, you will be having the gentlemen who are in the courtroom now to defend your rights."

Meanwhile, the court-appointed defense lawyers – who were criticized for being too passive after a session Sunday, when they declined chances for cross-examination – asked pointed questions of the witnesses.

The three women and two men all testified from behind a curtain, a protection taken by most who have testified in nine sessions since the trial began on Oct. 19 to protect them from reprisals.

One woman from Dujail, who was fourth to testify, directly implicated Ibrahim, Saddam’s half-brother and head of Mukharabat, the intelligence agency.

She said her father and two brothers were executed in the crackdown.

She described how she was stripped and hung by her hands at the agency’s headquarters in Baghdad, then told her to confess that one of her brothers was a member of the Shiite opposition Dawa Party. She refused and was beaten by hoses and given electric shocks.

At one point, her interrogators said, "Mr. Barzan is here," she told the court. Ibrahim told the guards to suspend her from her feet, then he kicked her three times in the chest, she said. The next day she was tortured in the same way for two hours, she said.

"I was pleading with them to let me down because I felt like my neck was falling off," she told the court.

Abdel-Rahman was brought in as chief judge Sunday to replace his predecessor, who resigned amid criticism he was not doing enough to control the proceedings.