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At Chaotic Trial of Hussein, Iraqi Victims Tell of Torture
Former U.S. attorney general Ramsey Clark, who is aiding the defense team, says the trial could have a healing effect for Iraqis if the proceedings are fair.
(Pool Photo/by Stefan Zaklin Via Getty Images)
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Former U.S. attorney general Ramsey Clark, who has joined the defense team, said later that several spectators in the gallery had made a gesture to the defendants of drawing a knife across their throats.
Hussein himself has been alternately bombastic and petty. He continued to press demands for paper to write notes on. At one point he showed the judge the palm of his hand, covered in notes in purple ink.
As Mohammed was testifying, Hussein said to him with a sneer, "Why didn't they give you a death sentence?"
The trial is being broadcast nationally, but the tape is delayed and on Monday was interrupted repeatedly, apparently at the order of the chief judge. The end of the day's proceedings was cut off entirely, depriving Iraqis of hearing Hussein's final and most vitriolic tirade of the day.
As the judge tried to admonish him, Hussein roared, "Let him not interrupt me," and called the testimony "an organized lie," according to pool reporters at the trial. He finally flung himself into a chair, proclaiming, "I am Saddam Hussein."
"Either they show the whole trial, or not. This is all scoring points for Saddam," said Haqi Ismail, 32, a science student, as he shopped in a store Monday evening. He complained that the witnesses so far had offered little in firsthand accounts.
"All they said is, 'They told me,' or, 'I heard,' " Ismail said. "No judge in the world would go by that."
The hearsay appeared to be problematic to the court, as Mohammed acknowledged he witnessed little of what he recounted and Jawad declined to directly blame the defendants by name in his testimony.
"As everyone heard, there is not even one piece of evidence brought up, either written or oral, really condemning Mr. Saddam or his colleagues," said defense attorney Najeeb Nauimi, who at one point staged a walkout with other lawyers to force the judge to listen to their oral arguments. "This court is not capable of handling this trial."
"The court was chaotic half the time," Clark said on CNN after the trial, which is to resume Tuesday. "It ought to have a healing effect" for the nation. "But the only way to have a healing effect is to be fair, and you don't get that sense. Certainly the defense doesn't."
Special correspondent Naseer Nouri contributed to this report.
