Saddam Trial Proceeds Without Him

Ex-Dictator Makes Good On Vow To Boycott, But Two Witnesses Testify

(CBS/AP) 
The court also heard from a male witness who testified behind a beige curtain to conceal his identity. He told of being arrested after the assassination attempt and being taken to the local Baath Party headquarters, where he found people "screaming because of the beatings."

The witness said Ibrahim was present.

"When my turn came, the investigator asked me my name and he turned to Barazan and asked him, `What we shall do with him?"' the witness said. "Barazan replied: `Take him. He might be useful.' We were almost dead because of the beatings."

When questioned by Amin, however, the witness said he was blindfolded at the time and thought Ibrahim was present because other prisoners told him so.

A second witness, whose identity was also concealed, said he and his entire family were rounded up from their Dujail home and imprisoned for four years.

"When they came to take us, they said we will be back in 10 minutes," he recounted. "It took four years."

He said that while in the notorious Abu Ghraib prison, he and other detainees were subjected to torture, sleep deprivation and beatings with water hoses.

Saddam complained loudly Tuesday that he and his co-defendants were exhausted, and had no clean clothes to wear. He said he and the seven other co-defendants had been mistreated by the "unjust court," and that he would not return on Wednesday.

Dozier reports that Saddam's lawyers think he can beat the charges, but Saddam is also going for a different sort of verdict. He wants to show his Iraqi followers and many across the Arab world that he's not the bewildered man that the U.S. troops pulled out of a spider hole in Tikrit. Rather, he wants to show he's the man who took on the world's greatest superpower twice and is still fighting, Dozier says.

His half-brother and codefendant Barazan Ibrahim Wednesday continued the complaints about their treatment.

He said that here you have one of the richest countries in the world, but only after four months were they allowed cigarettes — and then they were some of the worst cigarettes.

The food was so bad that in two months, he lost 70kg. "No one can eat it," he said.

He said he spent 8-9 months in a 6- by 6-foot cell where he couldn't even lie down, with no windows, no electricity, no ventilation, no shower, and no running water.

"With or without Saddam Hussein in the courtroom, the witness testimony in international tribunals is the most electrifying and vital part of the prosecution," said Falk, "because it provides the evidence of the crimes, in this case, torture, rape, forced expulsion and crimes against humanity."

Throughout the trial, which began Oct. 19, Saddam has repeatedly staged confrontations with the court and attempted to take control of the proceedings with dramatic rhetorical flourishes.