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| Iraq |
| Saddam refuses plea |
| 2006-05-15 |
| BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Saddam Hussein refused to enter a plea at his trial on Monday after he was formally charged with ordering the killing and torture of hundreds of Shi'ite villagers, telling the judge he was still Iraq's president. The detailed charges read out by Judge Raouf Abdel Rahman stemmed from the killing of 148 Shi'ites after an attempt on Saddam's life in 1982 in the village of Dujail. The ousted president was accused of ordering the killing and torture of hundreds in the village, including women and children, and that he sent helicopters and planes to pound Dujail, north of Baghdad. Wearing a dark suit and white shirt, Saddam smiled as he listened to the charges, holding a Koran in his left hand. "This statement cannot influence me or shake a hair of my head. What matters to me is the Iraqi people and myself," Saddam said. "I am president of Iraq by the will of the Iraqi people." Replying the judge said: "You were, but not now." Rahman said some of the men and women taken prisoner in Dujail by Saddam's security forces were tortured with "blows to the head and electric shocks" and that five died under torture. He also read out the names of 32 of the 148 who were under 18 and therefore should not have been executed under then-existing Iraqi and international law, the judge said. The court then called Saddam's half-brother Barzan al- Tikriti, former chief of the feared intelligence security forces, who dismissed charges read out to him were "lies." If found guilty, Saddam, 69, faces a death sentence. Six other co-accused are also being tried for the Dujail case, the first of many trials the ousted leader could face. Witnesses for the defense were expected to testify later in the day. |
| Posted by:ryuge |
| #5 When did you get back in-country Verlaine? I thought you wuz gonna hang here for a bit. |
| Posted by: 6 2006-05-15 16:15 |
| #4 Thanks Verlaine. I also find it interesting that the Anfal trial will begin before the current trial is over. This way, the viewers won't lose interest because Saddam's fate is still to be decided. |
| Posted by: ed 2006-05-15 16:03 |
| #3 Don't swing him just yet. Watching him sit through a few more (bigger, more dramatic) cases will do everyone good. Anfal case should start before the current one's finished. It's big. Hopefully the 1991 case will commence before Anfal's done. This is the biggest TV event in Arab history (virtually all pan-Arab satellite and many large domestic channels carry it without interruption) - and the impact can only be in our interest. Like much else here, not right away, though. Let's have more patience than the worthless political class inside the Beltway. |
| Posted by: Verlaine in Iraq 2006-05-15 15:56 |
| #2 Why do I get a picture of Mel Brooks playing the fake Louis 16 in "History of the World, Part 1"? "Blindfold?" "None!" |
| Posted by: mojo 2006-05-15 11:55 |
| #1 When do we get to see this tool swing? Will the insurgents finally get it through their thick heads that he isn't comming back when they see that? |
| Posted by: Whineger Javing6236 2006-05-15 11:06 |