Saddam’s signature on incriminating documents: court

By Mussab al-Khairalla and Michael Georgy

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Signatures on documents linking Saddam
Hussein and six of his co-accused to the killings of 148
Shi’ites in the 1980s match those of the former Iraqi
president, the court heard on Monday.

The prosecution had demanded the court commission a team of
experts to examine documents and authenticate the signatures
and handwriting of the defendants facing charges of crimes
against humanity in the deaths of 148 Shi’ites in Dujail in
1982.

“The signatures and margins stipulated in the documents
match the signature of Saddam Hussein on presidential decrees,”
said the experts’ report read out at the trial in Baghdad’s
Green Zone.

Saddam and his half brother Barzan al-Tikriti have refused
to give the court samples of their writing. On Monday Barzan
stood up in court in his white robe and traditional Arabic
checkered headdress and rejected the report.

He pointed to the movie “Catch Me If You Can” with Leonardo
DiCaprio, which dramatizes the true story of a teenaged con man
who stole more than $2.5 million, as an example of how easy it
would be to forge a signature, including his.

“Why didn’t the investigator show us the original copy of
this evidence. … It’s presented in front of hundreds of
millions to try and stain our reputation,” said Barzan, a
former Iraqi ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva and
once one of the most feared men in Iraq.

“I have my reservations about the accusations that the
signatures and handwriting is real.”

Defense lawyers demanded 45 days to study the new evidence
before commenting. The trial was adjourned until May 15 to give
the defense time to present their witnesses in the next
session.

The 148 Shi’ite men and teenagers were killed or executed
after an attempt on Saddam’s life in the town of Dujail in
1982.

Television footage of that day showed Saddam in a military
uniform getting out of his armored car and personally
interrogating nervous Iraqis about the assassination attempt.

Saddam and his seven co-defendants could face death by
hanging if found guilty.

Saddam and Barzan have said there was no crime in
prosecuting the Dujail Shi’ites because they were accused of
trying to kill the former leader.

On Monday, Saddam sat in court in a dark suit and white
shirt in a metal pen with is co-defendants, unusually quiet for
a man who has dominated the proceedings with tirades calling
for Iraqis to revolt against U.S. occupation.

He left the talking to Barzan, who dismissed the
prosecution evidence as an attempt to ruin the reputations of
the accused, who include former Iraqi vice president Taha
Yassin Ramadan.

Saddam could soon face a new trial on charges of genocide
against the Kurds in the late 1980s in the Anfal campaign, in
which Kurdish authorities say about 100,000 were killed or
disappeared and many villages were destroyed.

Prosecutors had hoped for a quick sentence in the Dujail
case because it is far simpler than others such as genocide
against the Kurds and charges of crimes against humanity in the
suppression of Shi’ite uprisings.