Saddam trial wraps up defense case

By Ahmed Rasheed

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Defense lawyers for Saddam Hussein and
seven co-accused of crimes against humanity wrapped up their
case on Tuesday and the court said it will hear final
statements within a month before it reaches a verdict.

Chief Judge Raouf Abdel Rahman said the prosecution team
will make its closing statements on June 19 and the defense
team will deliver its final remarks on July 10.

That would mark the final phase in a trial which opened
last October and has been rocked by the killings of two defense
lawyers, the resignation of the previous chief judge and court
disorder prompted by lengthy tirades by defendants.

Once final statements are in, a five-judge panel is
expected to adjourn to consider a verdict, an official close to
the court said. The prosecution completed its case in April.

Saddam faces death by hanging if found guilty, but any
execution of the former Iraqi president could be delayed by
appeals and possibly up to a dozen other trials for war crimes
and genocide.

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 one of
Saddam’s half brothers, Sabawi al-Tikriti.

Earlier, Abdel 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,”
Abdel Rahman said.

DUJAIL CRACKDOWN

The eight defendants are accused of crimes against humanity
for their roles in a crackdown that led to the killing of 148
Shi’ites after an assassination attempt against Saddam in the
village of Dujail in 1982.

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

Abdel Rahman, a 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,” he 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 Yassin 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, Abdel
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.