Man who sentenced 148 to death defends actions as law



Saddam and the other defendants are accused of trying to exact revenge.
CHICAGO TRIBUNE
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- The man who sentenced 148 Iraqis to death at the behest of Saddam Hussein testified Thursday that he was only following the law.
Awad al-Bandar presided as judge over the perfunctory trials of the men and teenage boys of the Shiite village of Dujail, Iraq, who were randomly rounded up, tried and executed after a botched assassination attempt on Saddam. In his defense, al-Bandar told the Iraqi Special Tribunal on Thursday that the law required him to mete out the punishment.
"There was proof that they had taken part in the [assassination attempt]," al-Bandar told the judge, Raouf al-Rahman, who is overseeing the 6-month-old trial of Saddam, al-Bandar and five others being tried in the Dujail case. "They were all found guilty. If you had the case in front of you, you would have had completely the same verdict."
Saddam has admitted in court that he signed off on the death sentences and said the response was legal. The former president and his six co-defendants could be hanged if convicted on charges of crimes against humanity for arbitrarily imprisoning and torturing hundreds and executing 148 men and boys after the July 1982 episode in Dujail.
Saddam and the others were allegedly trying to exact revenge against the entire village, including many who had nothing to do with the assassination attempt, after the plot to kill him was foiled. Al-Bandar testified that the suspects were treated fairly, even though only one attorney was appointed to defend all the men. He also said that he deliberated and handed down verdicts for all the cases by working 15-hour workdays over a 16-day period.
Al-Bandar was the only one of the defendants to appear in court Thursday. He was brought in as prosecutors presented a series of documents that listed the names of the executed, verdicts and a letter from al-Bandar that counseled that the hundreds of suspects rounded up and imprisoned after the assassination attempt should face maximum punishment.
The trial, which has moved at an agonizingly slow pace and has been marked by repeated tirades from Saddam and his co-defendants, has entered the final stretch, U.S. officials said. In the coming weeks, the court will present formal charges against the defendants, the defense will get the opportunity to present its case, and closing arguments will be made.
The verdict could come in June or July, said a U.S. diplomat working closely with the Iraqi Special Tribunal.

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