Saddam Disputes Court’s Authority

Deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein rejected evidence at his Baghdad massacre trial Wednesday that he authorized the execution of children.

He was under cross-examination for the first time about the deaths of 149 people in the town of Dujail in 1982 following a foiled assassination bid.

He denied approving the executions of people under the age of 18, which was then Iraq’s minimum age, the BBC said.

The trial got off to a thorny start, with Saddam criticizing the country’s Shiite-led Interior Ministry, which he accused of killing scores of Iraqis after his ouster. Shiites are the majority in the country, and were persecuted during the reign of Saddam, who is a Sunni Muslim.

When warned by the judge to refrain from making political statements, Saddam said: You’re scared of the interior minister — he doesn’t scare my dog.

He and seven others are charged with the massacre, and all have pleaded innocent.

The trial resumed a day after Saddam and six others were charged with genocide relating to the Anfal campaign against Iraqi Kurds in the late 1980s.

That, and other pending charges, will be tried separately, the reports said.