Saddam To Testify For Defense
Saddam Hussein and his former intelligence chief can testify on behalf of one of their co-defendants in their trial on charges of crimes against humanity, the chief judge ruled Wednesday.
At the beginning of the session, chief judge Raouf Abdel-Rahman had refused defendant Taha Yassin Ramadan's request that Saddam and Ibrahim be allowed to testify on his behalf. Once a member of Saddam's inner ruling circle, Ramadan is accused of helping direct a crackdown in the town of Dujail and organizing the razing of farmlands there.
Ramadan stood and complained that he had no other witnesses to call to back his contention that he was not in Dujail when Saddam's security forces launched the crackdown in 1982, as the prosecution has alleged.
"I know no one from Dujail. Should I go there and ask around for people who can confirm that I was there or not? My witnesses are here with us," he said.
One of his lawyers asked the judge "to allow us to pose some questions to Saddam and Ibrahim," and Abdel-Rahman replied, "OK, you will be allowed."
After hearing nine defense witnesses on behalf of three low-level defendants in the case, the court adjourned until Monday.
Putting Saddam on the stand would allow the prosecution to cross-examine him, although the judge may limit their questions to his testimony on Ramadan's role in the crackdown.
In other developments:
The prosecution alleges that Saddam ordered Ramadan to bring his forces from the People's Army, a Baath Party militia, to Dujail to participate in the arrests of residents and oversee the razing of farmlands after a July 8, 1982, assassination attempt against Saddam in the town.
Prosecutors have directly questioned Saddam once in the seven-month-old trial, when the judge called each of the eight defendants to testify. Saddam's turn took place in an April 5 session, when he acknowledged approving death sentences for 148 Shiites from Dujail but otherwise dodged many of the prosecutors' questions.
Saddam and his seven co-defendants face possible execution by hanging if convicted of crimes against humanity in Dujail, including killing women and children, torturing detainees and arresting some 399 people in the sweep through the town.
Saddam appeared jovial throughout the session, smiling as he entered and joking with the judge when a low-level defendant, Mohammed Azawi Ali, a former Baath Party official in Dujail, shouted that he had nothing to do with the crackdown.
"Dujail's residents are known for their hot blood," Saddam said of Ali, drawing a smile from Abdel-Rahman.
Saddam even stood and made a point in favor of the prosecution in an argument that broke out when prosecutors objected to testimony by a relative of Ali on the grounds that the relative was only 7 when the Dujail crackdown was launched.
The relative, a local tribesman, said Ali was arrested the day of the attack on Saddam and briefly detained until then-intelligence chief Barzan Ibrahim, one of the top defendants in the trial, ordered his release.
Chief prosecutor Jaafar al-Moussawi argued the relative's testimony should be ignored because he was a child at the time and was only reporting what he had heard.
"The man was 7 years old at the time and is 30 now, it's a long period," Saddam agreed. "Imagination is part of a child's nature ... so that could lead him to give testimony based on imagination, and that would lead to injustice."
The judge allowed the relative's testimony.
Saddam and other top defendants have argued that the crackdown was a legal response to the assassination attempt.
In the case of the lower-level defendants, the defense is arguing that they were not involved in the sweep of arrests against Dujail residents.
In a charge sheet announced Monday, Abdel-Rahman accused Ali and three other defendants of sending letters to security forces the day of the attack informing on Dujail residents. Some of the people they named, including women and children, later died from torture or harsh prison conditions, or were among the 148 people sentenced to death and executed for the assassination attempt.
Iraqi experts authenticated the defendants' handwriting in the letters, though the four deny writing them.
U.S. officials observing the court have said a verdict could come as soon as August. The defendants have the right of appeal, which could extend the proceedings for months.