Saddam returns to courtroom; trial's slow pace frustrates many

BAGHDAD, Iraq — As Saddam Hussein appeared Monday for only the second time since his trial began in October, frustration at the slow pace of the proceedings grew among many Iraqis — especially majority Shiites — who believe he should have already been punished.

Scowling and jabbing, Saddam used the defendant's dock as a pulpit from which to lecture the judge on how to treat foreigners. He complained that while being brought to the courtroom by U.S. guards, he had been handcuffed, forced to walk up flights of stairs and stripped of papers and writing implements.

When the chief judge, Rizgar Mohammed Amin, said he would tell the guards to give him writing implements, Saddam thundered: "Don't tell them — I want you to order them! They are foreigners and occupiers and invaders."

While the seven other defendants appeared frightened and exhausted, Saddam swaggered confidently to his seat, greeting people along the way with the traditional Arabic greeting, "Peace be upon the people of peace," as he cradled a copy of the Quran. Saddam began with a verse from the Muslim holy book that reminds believers who aspire for heaven that God knows who actually participated in jihad, or holy war.

At the end of the day's proceedings, the trial was recessed until Dec. 5 to give some of Saddam's seven co-defendants time to find replacements for two defense attorneys who were assassinated after the initial court session almost six weeks ago. Some defense attorneys stayed away from the courtroom Monday, apparently fearing that they, too, would be killed.

"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."

Shiites and Kurds were oppressed by Saddam's Sunni Arab-dominated regime.

In Baghdad, Shiite businessman Saadoun Abdul-Hassan stayed home 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.

Saddam is charged with ordering the execution of 148 Shiite residents of Dujail to punish them for a 1982 attack on his convoy. Prosecutors have said they will bring broader charges, ultimately involving hundreds of thousands of deaths under Saddam's rule, if he is not convicted and executed first.

Monday's session featured the first testimony against Saddam — a deathbed videotape of a witness, made without defense lawyers present, one of several trial procedures that legal ethicists have said they find troubling.

The witness, Wadah Ismail Sheik, a former investigator with Iraq's secret police, was shown in his hospital room, tubes and medical monitors strung from his arms, days before he died of cancer. He described how Saddam's bodyguards killed "many" residents of the town of Dujail in July 1982, after Saddam's convoy was attacked by gunmen hiding in a nearby orchard.

Sheik described the roundup of more than 400 people in the town. Some were executed, and others spent several years in prison before being released. "The number of people who attacked the convoy did not exceed 12," he said. "I don't know why this large number of people were arrested."

The prosecution began its case with videotaped news clips of Saddam in Dujail after the assassination attempt. The clips showed a younger, uniformed Saddam coldly inspecting suspects, brushing aside their protestations of innocence. "Separate them for interrogation," he was shown saying brusquely.

Saddam's defense dominated on Monday, so much so that the prosecutor, Jaafar al-Mousawi, complained that he wasn't getting time to make his case.

"The tribunal was not up to the required level," al-Mousawi said afterward. "It was the opposite of what we planned for."

The judge, a Kurd, considered nearly all the defendants' requests, an effort to show that Saddam could get a fair trial in Iraq. That irritated several Shiite Muslim politicians, who said the judge's efforts were denying Iraqis a fair hearing for their grievances.

"This judge is giving too much leeway to Saddam," grumbled Ali al-Dabagh, a National Assembly member watching the proceedings in the court's VIP section. "He should respect the Iraqis and the victims' feelings."

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."

The tribunal allowed former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark and prominent lawyers from Qatar and Jordan to join the defense team as advisers, a move aimed at convincing foreign human-rights groups that the trial would meet international standards of fairness.

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.

In Saddam's hometown of Tikrit, 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.

The Los Angeles Times reported today that Shiite Muslim militia members have infiltrated Iraq's police forces and are carrying out killings that appear to be organized retaliation to attacks by Sunni-led insurgents.

Web "trophy" video

sparks investigations

The British newspaper the Sunday Telegraph reported over the weekend that a "trophy" video appearing to show security guards in Baghdad randomly shooting Iraqi civilians has sparked two investigations after it was posted on the Internet. There are no clues as to the shooter, but either a Scottish or Irish accent can be heard in at least one of the clips above Elvis Presley's "Mystery Train," the music that accompanies the video.

Both the contractor Aegis Defence Services and the British government confirmed that they are investigating. The video first appeared on the Web site www.aegisIraq.co.uk., but has been removed.

Compiled from The Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Knight Ridder Newspapers and The Associated Press.