|
Saddam goes on trial for 1982 massacre
(AP)
Updated: 2005-10-19 19:11
At the start of the session, Amin called the defendants into the room one by
one. Saddam was the last to enter, escorted by two Iraqi guards in bulletproof
vests who guided him by the elbow. He glanced at journalists watching through
bulletproof glass from an adjoining room. He motioned for his escorts to slow
down a little.
After sitting, he greeted his co-defendants, saying "Peace be upon you,"
sitting next to co-defendant Awad Hamed al-Bandar, former head of Iraq's
Revolutionary Court.
The other defendants include Saddam's former intelligence chief Barazan
Ibrahim, former vice president Taha Yassin Ramadan and other lower-level
Baathist civil servants. Most were wearing traditional Arab robes and they
complained that they were not allowed to have headdresses, so court officials
brought out red headdresses for them. Many Sunni Arabs consider it shameful to
appear in public without the checkered scarf, tied by a cord around the
forehead.
Ramadan also refused to identify himself to the judge. "I repeat what
President Saddam Hussein has said," he added. The other defendants agreed to
state their names.
The trial is taking place in the marble building that once served as the
National Command Headquarters of his feared Baath Party. The building in
Baghdad's Green Zone — the heavily fortified district where Iraq's government,
parliament and the U.S. Embassy are located — was ringed with 10-foot blast
walls and U.S. and Iraqi troops, with several Humvees and at least one tank
deployed outside. U.S. soldiers led sniffer dogs around the grounds, looking for
explosives.
The identities of judges had been a tightly held secret to ensure their
safety, though Amin's name was revealed just before the trial began. The
courtroom camera repeatedly focused on him.
The defendants are facing charges that they ordered the killing in 1982 of
nearly 150 people in the mainly Shiite village of Dujail north of Baghdad after
a failed attempt on the former dictator's life.
If convicted, the men face the death penalty — by
hanging.
|
