Saddam Hussein Trial Begins

Defiant, He Asks For Judge's Name, Says Court Has No Authority

(CBS/AP)  If a death sentence is issued in the Dujail case, it is unclear whether it would be carried out regardless of whether Saddam is involved in other trials. He can appeal a Dujail verdict, but if a conviction and sentence are upheld, the sentence must be carried out within 30 days. A stay could be granted to allow other trials to proceed.

Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, a Shiite who actively opposed Saddam's rule during years in exile, showed his eagerness to see any sentence carried out.

"We are not trying to land on the moon here," he said Monday. "It's enough (to try Saddam) on Dujail and Anfal. The tribunal is just and open, he has a defense lawyer and the verdict will match the crime."

Al-Jaafari, whose Dawa Party was blamed by Saddam's regime for the 1982 attempt on Saddam's life in Dujail, leads a Shiite-Kurdish coalition government that came to office six months ago.

Many Iraqis, especially members of the Shiite majority and Kurdish minority — the two communities most oppressed by Saddam's 23-year regime — have also been eagerly awaiting the chance to see the man who ruled with unquestioned and total power in the defendants' dock answering for his actions.

Some Shiites were sympathetic toward Saddam on the eve of his trial.

"How can Saddam get a fair trial when there's no government in Iraq? How can they try him?" asked Ismail Makki, a poor Shiite Muslim from the southern Iraqi city of Basra, as he hawked fruits and vegetables in a bustling downtown marketplace in Amman, in neighboring Jordan.

"There's no water, electricity, or security," he yelled. "If he stayed in power, it would be better for us."

At the same marketplace, Iraqi chemist Taher Al-Sahab also defended Saddam.

"He is not guilty," said the Shiite from Karbala, one of his sect's holiest cities in Iraq. "He won't get a fair trial in Iraq."

Asked about Saddam's alleged massacre of thousands of his countrymen, Al-Sahab said tartly: "Now, more Shiites are being killed in suicide bombings."

Others, however, are happy about what they view as a chance for retribution.

Mohammed Najm, whose brother disappeared after he was taken away by Saddam's police a decade ago, said he wants to see Saddam dead.

"Saddam needs no trial. He needs a guillotine," said Najm, a Shiite from Baghdad's Sadr City neighborhood, home to an estimated 2.5 million Shiites.

Saddam's defense lawyer, Al-Dulaimi, says he wants a three-month adjournment to prepare Saddam's defense and arrange for Arab and Western lawyers to join him.

He said he met with Saddam for 90 minutes Tuesday at a location other than the usual place of detention for the ousted Iraqi leader. He would not say where.

"His morale is very, very, very high and he is very optimistic and confident of his innocence, although the court is ... unjust," he said of Saddam, who has been kept at a U.S.-run facility at Baghdad International Airport since his capture by American troops in December 2003.

The court is expected to agree to his request for a postponement, though it is not clear how long that would be.

In Washington, U.S. Ambassador James Jeffrey, a senior adviser to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, called the trial "an Iraqi process."

"Saddam Hussein is going to have to answer for his crimes, and it is a good thing that the Iraqis are taking that responsibility on themselves, and we'll just have to wait and see what comes out of this," he said.