Witness tells of torture, beatings

During the session, the deposed dictator boasted that he doesn't fear execution.
CHICAGO TRIBUNE
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- The first witness to appear in court Monday for Saddam Hussein's trial was able to keep his composure as he recounted the 1982 massacre of Dujail in a vivid, albeit rambling, monologue.
He spoke of an intelligence service building where he and his family were imprisoned that was so crowded there wasn't enough room for everyone to lie down to sleep. He calmly described seeing bits of hair and blood under something he described as a human meat grinder.
But when Ahmed Hassan Mohammed, 38, began telling the court that his teenage brother was savagely beaten and tortured with electric shock by Saddam's henchmen, he broke down.
"They beat him in front of my father," said Mohammed, tears streaming down his cheeks. "He was bleeding. ... He was bleeding from his back."
Chilling and detailed, Mohammed's testimony marked a haunting moment in Iraqi history as he accused Saddam, who sat just a few feet away from him, and his cronies in a court of law of gruesome atrocities.
Saddam's defiance
But the moment was largely overshadowed by the deposed president's hot-tempered defiance and repeated outbursts. Saddam boasted that he doesn't fear execution and boldly threatened the judge during Monday's court session.
"When the revolution of the heroic Iraq arrives, you will be held accountable," Saddam said. Wearing the same pinstriped suit he has donned for court sessions since his first appearance in July 2004, Hussein ambled into the courtroom holding a Quran. The defense attorneys and his fellow defendants rose to their feet to show respect to Saddam, and the ousted leader smiled broadly through much of the session.
Despite Judge Rizgar Mohammed Amin's frequent admonishments, Saddam and his co-defendant and former intelligence chief, Barzan Ibrahim, quickly turned the proceedings into an unruly spectacle with their interjections and rants.
Saddam seemed unmoved by Mohammed's testimony. When he was given the opportunity to question the witness, Saddam instead lashed out about the legitimacy of the court and suggested that Mohammed be given a psychological evaluation.
"I am not afraid of execution. I realize there is pressure on you and I regret that I have to confront one of my sons," Saddam said to Mohammed. "But I'm not doing it for myself. I'm doing it for Iraq. I'm not defending myself. But I am defending you."
When Amin told him to only address the witness with questions about his testimony, Saddam barked back that he had served Iraq for more than 30 years and had the right to speak his mind.
Ibrahim, who is Saddam's half-brother, was perhaps even more petulant. He called Mohammed a liar, and at one point during the session screamed that someone was making threatening gestures in the gallery. He stood up and spit toward the gallery and shouted an insult.
Witnesses' accounts
Saddam, Ibrahim and six others are on trial for the executions of more than 140 Shiite men in the village of Dujail. They were rounded up and killed after a failed assassination attempt on Saddam. If convicted, Saddam and the others could be sentenced to death.
In his account, Mohammed told the court about the random arrests and torture that he and hundreds of others in his village faced after the failed assassination attempt. He said he was only 15 when he was arrested and that he spent four years imprisoned without seeing a judge.
He recalled that early in his confinement Hussein and Barzan visited the prison. Mohammed said that Saddam asked him if he knew who he was. When Mohammed responded "Saddam," he said the former president smashed an ashtray against his head.
A second witness, Jawad Abdul-Aziz Jawad, testified that his 16-year-old brother was detained in the roundup and executed.
The two men's testimony, which came on the third day of proceedings since Oct. 18, marked the first substantive moment in the trial, which has moved at a glacial pace. U.S. officials said that 11 prosecution witnesses are expected to testify over the next few days before the court is adjourned again.
Defense motions
Early in Monday's session, it appeared the long wait for testimony would be extended when the defense attorneys, led by former U.S. attorney general and Saddam team lawyer Ramsey Clark, walked out of the courtroom.
As the lawyers filed out, Saddam and Ibrahim shouted, "Long live Iraq! Long live the Arab nation! Long live democracy!"
The lawyers argued with the judge over motions they filed regarding the legitimacy of the court and providing better security for defense team. They contend that it doesn't make sense to move forward with a trial before ruling on whether the special tribunal is a legitimate court to try Saddam and the others.
Judge Amin, who initially insisted that the motions should be offered and answered in writing, relented after the attorneys walked out. He allowed attorneys Najeeb al-Nuemi and Clark to address the court about their concerns.
Al-Nueimi argued that the court was illegitimate because it was formed under the Coalition Provisional Authority, the U.S. occupation power that governed the country after the fall of Saddam's regime until June 28, 2004.
Clark told the court that if security measures were not adequately improved for the defense lawyers that the judicial system could collapse. Two defense attorneys working for Saddam have been assassinated since the start of the trial in October.
Amin, the presiding judge, struggled to keep the defense and witnesses on the topic of the charges. At one point during Mohammed's testimony, the witness said that Barzan had killed a 14-year-old boy, a charge that led to vitriolic exchange between the two men.
"To hell," Ibrahim told Mohammed.
The witness replied, "You and your children go to hell."