Saddam refuses to enter court

2005-12-07 13:09

Baghdad - A defiant Saddam Hussein refused to appear in court on Wednesday, delaying the resumption of his trial that had adjourned with the deposed Iraqi dictator shouting "Go to hell!"

The gripping but chaotic trial, marked by harrowing witness testimony of torture and angry tirades from Saddam, had been scheduled to resume on Wednesday with testimony from two more "complainants".

But proceedings were delayed, first by a closed-door meeting between Saddam's defence lawyers and judges, then by the refusal of the fallen dictator to enter the dock.

"There been a delay because one of the defendants is refusing to come up to the court. That defendant is now meeting with his attorneys," a court source said.

"If he doesn't come they will make other arrangements," the official added, subsequently using the name Saddam.

With only two witnesses to appear, Wednesday was likely to be a short session, after which the trial was expected to be adjourned for at least several weeks as the country concentrates on legislative elections set for December 15.

Amid persistent security problems plaguing the trial, 20 gunmen stormed into a hospital in northern Iraq to free a detainee from an Islamist cell planning to assassinate the country's top investigative judge.

'Beaten, pistol whipped, given electric shocks'

Three policemen were killed in the raid to free the man from an extremist cell linked to al-Qaeda which planned to murder Raed Juhi, the top judge looking into the Saddam case.

During the fourth session on Tuesday, witnesses testifying behind a beige screen with electronically distorted voices described being beaten, pistol whipped and given electric shocks by Iraqi intelligence agents.

Their testimony was repeatedly challenged by defence lawyers and Saddam himself, who took the opportunity to make an outburst against the United States, Israel and the whole court.

"Go to hell," were his parting words at the end of the hearing after he complained of having dirty clothes and being unable to wash or smoke.

Saddam harangued the Kurdish presiding judge, Rizkar Mohammed Amin, accusing him of being taken in by American theatrics and chastising him for not being more concerned with the detention conditions of defendants.

The defendants, who have all pleaded not guilty to charges including murder and torture, face the death penalty if convicted in what the local media has dubbed the "trial of the century".

Tuesday's hearing began with "witness A" who gave disquieting testimony of how she was stripped naked and whipped by intelligence agents, before being thrown into Baghdad's notorious Abu Ghraib jail in the early 1980s.

Throughout the day, the parade of anonymous witnesses continued, detailing the horrors visited upon them in the aftermath of a failed assassination attempt against Saddam in the village of Dujail in 1982.

- AFP