Judge tells Saddam defense to wrap up case

By Ahmed Rasheed

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – The chief judge in Saddam Hussein’s
trial on crimes against humanity said on Tuesday it would be
the last day to hear defense witnesses, setting the stage for
final arguments before the court reaches a verdict.

“This session will be the last for witnesses to be heard,”
chief Judge Raouf Abdel Rahman told the court, which opened the
trial against Saddam and seven co-accused in October.

Once witnesses finish testifying, the prosecution and
defense teams are expected to present their closing statements,
after which the five-judge panel would adjourn to consider a
verdict, an official close to the court said.

Defense lawyers, who have questioned the legality of the
U.S.-backed Iraqi court and have accused the judge of rushing
the case, called more witnesses on Tuesday, including Saddam’s
half brother Sabawi al-Tikriti.

Earlier, Rahman barred another half-brother of Saddam, co-
accused Barzan al-Tikriti, from attending the session one day
after guards threw him out from the heavily-fortified courtroom
in Baghdad as he screamed: “This is a dictatorship.”

“The court decided to continue keeping defendant Barzan
away for his repeated violation of the order of the court,”
Rahman said.

If found guilty, Saddam and the seven others could face
death by hanging for their roles in a crackdown that led to the
killing of 148 Shi’ite men and boys after an assassination
attempt against Saddam in the village of Dujail in 1982.

But any execution of Saddam could be delayed by appeals and
possibly up to a dozen other trials for war crimes and
genocide.

Among Tuesday’s witnesses, which also included three of
Saddam’s former bodyguards, was Sabawi, a former intelligence
chief who was number 36 on the U.S. military’s list of the 55
most-wanted people in Iraq after the 2003 invasion.

Rahman, a stern Kurd who has tried to keep defendants from
launching tirades, warned Sabawi to stick to the Dujail case.

“We don’t want political speeches. Stick to your
testimony,” Rahman said wagging his finger at Sabawi.

“How come you know that I am going to give a political
speech?” Sabawi asked sarcastically.

“I can tell by the way you are sitting,” the judge replied.

Sabawi, who was captured in February 2005, denied that
another defendant, former vice president Taha Ramadan, was head
of a committee that ordered the razing of orchards in reprisal
for the Dujail assassination attempt on Saddam.

Following a heated exchange with Ramadan’s lawyer, Rahman
accused the lawyer of provoking the witness to come up with
answers which are “insulting to the Iraqi people” and ordered
proceedings to briefly continue in closed session.