Saddam Hussain Appears Before Iraqi Tribunal, US Soldier Killed, Two wounded, Two Iraqi Guards Killed, Official Wounded

Saddam Hussain Appears Before Iraqi Tribunal, US Soldier Killed, Two wounded, Six Iraqi Guards Killed, Official Wounded

Thu Jul 1, 2004 08:18 AM ET

By Alistair Lyon BAGHDAD (Reuters) -

Downcast but defiant, the US-captured Iraqi President, Saddam Hussain, appeared before a US-appointed Iraqi tribunal on Thursday, but refused to recognize its authority and said the "real criminal" was President Bush.

Saddam, who arrived at the courthouse in handcuffs and chains, was read seven charges under a preliminary arrest warrant and told his rights, pool reporters granted access to the heavily guarded court said.

"I am Saddam Hussain, President of Iraq," he repeated.

He refused to recognize that he was guilty of a crime in invading and occupying Kuwait in 1990, telling the judge: "I did that for the Iraqi people. How can you defend these dogs?"

The judge reprimanded Saddam for his language and reminded him he was in a court of law. He looked around with half-smile, saying: "This is all a theater, the real criminal is Bush."

Saddam, 67 and held as a U.S. prisoner of war since his capture in December, appeared thin and tired, reporters said.

He arrived in a U.S. helicopter at a military base and was transferred to an armored bus to be driven to the makeshift courtroom near Baghdad international airport.

Two burly Iraqi guards escorted him into the courthouse. He was dressed in civilian clothes, with a gray jacket and a trimmed beard. His chains were removed before he reached the courtroom. His handcuffs were taken off inside the room where he sat down facing cameras that recorded the proceedings.

TRIAL MONTHS AWAY

The arraignment was the first step toward a trial which could help Iraq come to terms with 35 years of the Ba'athist regime, though it may not start for many months.

Charges against Saddam and 11 of his top lieutenants are expected to include war crimes and genocide, as well as crimes against humanity, but it is not yet clear what offences each individual will be charged with.

"The judge has prepared a separate charge sheet for each one of them," Salem Chalabi, nephew of Ahmed Chalabi and a U.S.-trained lawyer who has led the work of the special tribunal, told Reuters that Saddam's arraignment took place near Baghdad airport, where the U.S. military is thought to have held the 12 men at a detention center in solitary confinement.

Saddam had no lawyers to represent him at the arraignment.

Similar proceedings were to be held later in the day for his former aides, including former Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz and Hassan Ali al-Majid.

The U.S. military handed the 12 men over to Iraqi legal custody on Wednesday, but will continue to guard them following the return of sovereignty to Iraqis on Monday.

Saddam was captured by U.S. forces in December near his hometown of Tikrit after eight months on the run following his overthrow on April 9.

The public last glimpsed him, disheveled and with a bushy beard, in television footage shot soon after his capture.

Kuwait has called for Saddam to be sentenced to death over Baghdad's seven-month occupation of the Gulf state in 1990-91.

US-appointed Iraq's interim government is considering restoring the death penalty, suspended during the U.S.-British occupation. The government, led by Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, wants to show Iraqis the occupation is really over, despite the presence of U.S.-led foreign troops, and to prove it can curb violence.

One soldier from the US-led multinational force was killed and two wounded on Thursday when a roadside bomb hit their convoy outside the northern city of Mosul, a U.S. military spokesman said. He declined to give the nationalities of the victims.

A Finance Ministry official was wounded and two of his staff were killed in Baghdad when a bomb planted on a vehicle in their convoy exploded, an Interior Ministry spokesman said.

Four Iraqi bodyguards were killed when guerrillas attacked the house of an official working with the interim government in the town of Samarra, the official, named Adnan Thabet, said.

Gunfire echoed through the northern town when masked militants with rifles and rocket launchers attacked the house hours after U.S. troops pulled back from the town to allow Iraqi forces to take over security, witnesses said.

Without a Lawyer, Handcuffed in His Former Palace, Saddam Defiant

Thu Jul 1, 2004 09:08 AM ET

BAGHDAD (Reuters) -

He arrived handcuffed and in chains at a courtroom in a complex that was once one of his palaces. But although Saddam Hussein has been overthrown and captured, he had not lost his defiance. "I am Saddam Hussain, president of Iraq," he told a hearing where he was read seven charges, according to pool reporters in the courtroom at Camp Victory, a sprawling U.S. base that was previously a lavish hunting estate with a man-made lake.

"This is all theater. The real criminal is (U.S. President George W.) Bush," he said.

In television pictures broadcast around the world on Thursday shortly after the proceedings, Saddam looking haggard with a neatly trimmed beard that had mostly turned gray.

He was wearing a dark gray jacket over a white shirt, with no tie. It was the first footage shown of the ousted Iraqi leader since photographs and videotape taken after his capture in December.

Saddam, 67, was shown gesticulating toward the judge, and at times wagging his finger angrily.

He was thinner than when he was captured hiding in a hole near his hometown of Tikrit in December and he had bags under his eyes.

Saddam also declared that the country's occupiers could not strip him of his title of president. The judge told him that, under the Geneva Conventions, they could.

Saddam refused to concede that the invasion of Kuwait in 1990 was a crime, denouncing the Kuwaitis.

"They were trying to turn Iraqi women into prostitutes for just $10," he said. "How could you defend those dogs?"

The judge warned him not to use such language.

Saddam also refused to sign a statement acknowledging that he had been charged and read his rights. The hearing followed the end of his prisoner of war status and his transfer from U.S. to Iraqi legal custody on Wednesday.

Hearing the charge that he ordered the killing of thousands of Kurds in a poison gas attack at Halabja in 1988, Saddam seemed to imply he had nothing to do with it. "Yes, I heard about that," he said.

Two burly Iraqi guards escorted him into the courthouse. His chains were removed before he reached the courtroom and the handcuffs were taken off inside the room.

The courtroom is close to the palace in the middle of an artificial lake stocked with fish on the southwest fringe of Baghdad. Members of Saddam's inner circle used to go hunting in the grounds.

The small sandstone-colored court building is next to a blue-domed mosque, and was formerly the imam's residence.

It has been used for several courts martial, and for last week's hearing for Specialist Sabrina Harman, one of the seven American soldiers charged with abuse of Iraqi prisoners at the notorious Abu Ghraib jail -- where thousands of Iraqis were imprisoned and tortured under Saddam.

Told by the judge at the hearing that legal counsel would be provided for him if he needed it, Saddam said: "But everyone says, the Americans say, I have millions of dollars stashed away in Geneva. Why shouldn't I afford a lawyer?"

CHALLENGING AUTHORITY

Without a lawyer to represent him at the arraignment, Saddam refused to sign a statement acknowledging he had been charged and read his rights, including the right to legal counsel.

One foreign lawyer hired by Saddam's wife to represent him said the court's refusal to allow a defense attorney to be present at the arraignment was a breach of his human rights.

Told by the judge that legal counsel would be provided for him if he could not pay for his own lawyers, Saddam said: "But everyone says, the Americans say, I have millions of dollars stashed away in Geneva. Why shouldn't I afford a lawyer?"

Many Iraqis want Saddam to be executed, though some say they would prefer him to suffer a more protracted punishment.

Prejudgment by Official of the New Iraqi Regime

"This trial is great news," Iraqi Deputy Foreign Minister Hamid al-Bayati told reporters. "It's a trial of the regime that committed the most terrible crimes in the world.

"I think the Iraqi people will be satisfied with the death penalty and no less than that," he said.

Kuwait has also called for Saddam to be sentenced to death over Baghdad's seven-month occupation of the Gulf state. Iraq's interim government is considering restoring the death penalty, suspended during the U.S.-British occupation.

The government, led by Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, wants to show Iraqis the occupation is really over, despite the presence of U.S.-led foreign troops, and to prove it can curb violence.

One soldier from the multinational force was killed and two wounded on Thursday when a roadside bomb hit their convoy outside the northern city of Mosul, a U.S. military spokesman said. He declined to give the nationalities of the victims.

A Finance Ministry official was wounded and two of his staff were killed in Baghdad when a bomb planted on a vehicle in their convoy exploded, an Interior Ministry spokesman said.

Four Iraqi bodyguards were killed when guerrillas attacked the house of an official working with the interim government in the town of Samarra, the official, named Adnan Thabet, said.

Earth, a planet hungry for peace

The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03).

The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers in the West Bank, like a Python (Alquds, 1/25/03.

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