Saddam lashes out at US as trial resumes
(AP)
Updated: 2005-11-29 07:13

A day after the assassination attempt, whole families were rounded up and taken to Abu Ghraib prison, he said.

Al-Sheik noted that co-defendant Taha Yassin Ramadan, a former vice president, headed a committee that ordered orchards — the basis of Dujail's livelihood — to be destroyed because they were used to conceal the assailants.

At the end of the session, Saddam's half brother and fellow defendant, Barazan Ibrahim, complained he had not received proper medical treatment since being diagnosed with cancer and that this amounted to "indirect murder." Defendant Awad al-Bandar claimed he and Saddam had been threatened in court last month. The judge told him to submit his complaints in writing.

Amin then adjourned the hearing until next Monday. Saddam's personal attorney, Khalil al-Dulaimi, complained the defense needed at least a month. Amin suspended the hearing for 10 minutes to confer with the four other judges and then announced that the Monday date was firm.

The slow pace of the proceedings has angered many Iraqis — especially majority Shiites — who believe Saddam should have already been punished for his alleged crimes. Shiites and Kurds were heavily oppressed by Saddam's Sunni Arab-dominated regime.

Former U.S. attorney general Ramsey Clark (L) breaks for a lunchtime court recess during Saddam Hussein's trial in Baghdad November 28, 2005. [Reuters]

"Iraqis are beginning to feel frustrated," said Ridha Jawad Taki, a senior official in the country's biggest Shiite party. "The court should be more active. Saddam was captured two years ago. ... The weakness of this court might affect the verdicts, and this is worrying us."

However, Clark and others argue that a fair trial is impossible in Iraq because of the insurgency and because the country is effectively under foreign military occupation, despite U.S. and Iraqi assurances that the trial will conform to international standards.

Clark, who was attorney general under President Lyndon B. Johnson, is a staunch anti-war advocate who met with Saddam days before the 2003 invasion. He has also consulted several times with one-time Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, who is on trial in The Hague, Netherlands, on war crimes charges.

Saddam's trial has unleashed passions at a time of rising tensions between the country's Shiite and Sunni communities. Government security services are dominated by Shiites and Kurds, while Sunni Arabs form the backbone of the insurgency.

Former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein speaks to Presiding Judge Rizgar Mohammed Amin in Baghdad November 28, 2005.[Reuters]

In Baghdad, Shiite businessman Saadoun Abdul-Hassan stayed home Monday to watch the trial on television but expressed disappointment over the pace.

"Saddam does not need witnesses or evidence. The mass graves are the biggest witness and he should be executed in order for the security situation to improve," he said.

In Saddam's hometown of Tikrit, however, merchant Adnan Barzan called Saddam the "legitimate president" of Iraq and said that "those who speak about mass graves and about Dujail should go see what the new government is doing."

"They will find real mass graves dug by this government and not by the government of Saddam Hussein," Barzan said.