Bush is the real villain, says Saddam
2004-07-01 14:39
Baghdad - A defiant and unrepentant Saddam Hussein appeared in court on Thursday to hear a string of charges for which he could face the death penalty, in a landmark moment for the new Iraq.
A visibly tired Saddam defended his August 1990 invasion of Kuwait and refused to sign legal papers after seven charges were read against him, an official of the Iraqi Special Tribunal said.
Insisting he was still president of Iraq during the 30-minute hearing, the ousted dictator, speaking in a hoarse voice, questioned the jurisdiction of the tribunal.
"This is all a theatre. The real villain is Bush," said a thin-looking Saddam, referring to US President George W Bush.
The 67-year-old former strongman also insulted Kuwait. "How could you defend those dogs?" he asked, only to be rebuked by the judge that "such language is not permitted" in a court of law.
The toppled dictator was transported to the courtroom in an armoured bus flanked by four Humvees and an ambulance after flown there in a helicopter.
Upon arrival, he was led handcuffed and with a chain around his waist into the building by two Iraqi prison guards, while six more guards stood to attention at the door.
The handcuffs and chains were taken off before he stepped into the courtroom. Saddam, who has lost weight since his capture in December but sported a tidier beard, was dressed in a dark outfit.
Made hand gestures
During the hearing, Saddam looked around and made hand gestures at the judge as charges were read out against him that included the invasion of Kuwait and bloody suppression of an uprising by Iraq's Shiite majority in 1991.
"Kuwait is an Iraqi territory. It was not an invasion," Saddam declared according to a tribunal official who attended the hearing.
Before the hearing ended, Saddam was presented with a document to sign to acknowledge that he understood what was going on, understood the charges and that his rights had been read, but he refused to sign it.
Saddam's defence team, which has not yet been allowed to enter Iraq, on Thursday again slammed as "illegal" the Iraqi Special Tribunal trying the deposed dictator.
"This court is illegal since it was designated by an illegal authority, created by the occupation," one of the lawyers, Jordanian Ziad Khassawneh, said in Amman.
Minutes after Saddam left the courtroom, his former presidential secretary Abed Hamid Mahmud was brought in.
Ten other top members of the former regime were due to follow including former deputy prime minister Tareq Aziz and Saddam's first cousin "Chemical" Ali Hassan al-Majid.
Officials said videotape of the ex-president in court would be carefully checked before they are released to the public.
The faces of those involved, except for Saddam and 11 former aides who are due to appear later in the day, will be obscured to guard against any attacks by supporters of the disgraced despot.
- AFP