|
'Final day' for Saddam's defence
 The chief judge overseeing the trial of ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein has opened what he says will be the final day for defence witnesses to be heard. Judge Rauf Abdel Rahman urged the defence team to concentrate on witness testimony, not on "endless rhetoric". One of Saddam's seven co-defendants, his half-brother Barzan al-Tikriti, was barred from court, having been thrown out the day before. The former Iraqi intelligence chief had called the judge a "dictator". Judge Abdel Rahman said at the beginning of proceedings on Tuesday: "We have decided to exclude Barzan from today's session because of his repeated violations of the court rules." Saddam Hussein and his co-defendants are being tried in Baghdad for crimes against humanity in connection with the deaths of 148 Shia villagers in the 1980s. Recent sessions have been taken up with accounts by defence witnesses, but Judge Abdel Rahman said Tuesday's testimony would be the last. "I want to tell the defence attorneys that we are not going to listen to their endless rhetoric," he warned. "The session is to present their witnesses. They have to choose one of the options - either rhetoric or witnesses." The defence team has complained that it has not been allowed sufficient time to prepare and present its case. US lawyer Curtis Doebbler said on Monday that the defence was "at a serious disadvantage". "We want to work for justice, but that can only happen by having a fair trial and, under the current circumstances, that doesn't seem possible," Mr Doebbler said. He added that it took the prosecution more than five months to present its case, while the defence is being "rushed" to conclude within weeks. "Our witnesses have been intimidated by the court and have been assaulted," Mr Doebbler added. Once witness testimony is wrapped up, the defence and prosecution will make their closing statements, and then the judges will retire to consider their verdict.
Posted by: Steve 2006-06-13 |
|
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=155984 |