Posted on 06/30/2004 4:46:00 AM PDT by kattracks
BAGHDAD, June 30 (Reuters) - Saddam Hussein, who brutalised Iraqis for decades, said good morning and sought to ask some questions when the United States handed him over to Iraqi justice on Wednesday, a witness said.Saddam, who was captured hiding near his hometown of Tikrit in December, looked in good health as he appeared before an Iraqi judge in the first legal step towards a trial for the cruelties he inflicted during his 35 years of power.
"Saddam said good morning and asked if he could ask some questions," Salem Chalabi, a lawyer leading the work of a tribunal that will try the former dictator, told Reuters.
"He was told he should wait until tomorrow," said Chalabi, who was in the courtroom where Saddam and 11 of his former lieutenants were turned over to Iraqi legal custody.
But many of the other former Iraqi officials were nervous and agitated, said Chalabi, who has received numerous death threats since taking on the task of helping amass evidence against Saddam and preparing a special tribunal to try him.
Saddam, 67, is accused by Iraqis of torturing and killing hundreds of thousands of people with the help of officials in his Baath party. Saddam became president in 1979, but had already been Iraq's strongman since a Baathist coup in 1968.
His former lieutenants appeared nervous and some were hostile as they were told they would be charged on Thursday.
Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as "Chemical Ali" for his role in poison gas attacks, including one that killed about 5,000 Iraqi Kurds in Halabja in 1988, appeared especially rattled.
"He looked very scared. He was shaking," said Chalabi.
Saddam will remain in the physical custody of U.S. forces. He and the 11 others are to be charged on Thursday.
Saddam fled when U.S. forces entered Baghdad on April 9 last year after making a final defiant public appearance near a mosque in the capital. He was then filmed, looking disoriented, unkempt and with a bushy beard, as U.S. military doctors examined him after his capture on December 13.
Among others to be handed over were former Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz; Barzan Ibrahim Hasan al-Tikriti, Saddam's half-brother and adviser; Abid Hamid Mahmud al-Tikriti, his secretary; Sabawi Ibrahim, Saddam's maternal half-brother; Watban Ibrahim Hasan al-Tikriti, Saddam's half-brother and adviser; and Aziz Salih Numan, Baath Party regional commander and head of the party militia.
These men and others among the 55 most wanted Iraqis on a U.S. list are seen as witnesses who could help prove a chain of command linking Saddam to crimes against humanity.
Saddam will be charged with ordering the 1988 massacres of Kurds, the 1990 invasion of Kuwait and the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war, according to Chalabi.
I was on a site looking for something. That is great.
can't he seek refuge in Canaduh?
That is where he will retire to.
Am not hearing much about this on the dinosaur medias. Gee - I wonder why? Could it be that this is going to remind everyone of just what kind of monsters this regime was?
But my hope is that we are keeping an eye on the his situation.
"Saddam needs to seek a change of venue."
The "Soddomiite's buddies, left wing lawyers in the USA and around the world wanted a change of venue before he was even captured. They ranted and raved that his trial should not be in Iraq. They knew what was coming for their fascist mass murdering buddy, if he was tried in Iraq.
Rommel was part of the conspiracy to assasinate Hitler and was given the option of execution by firing squad as a traitor or suicide and buried a national hero. He took the latter,poison pill I believe.
And Rommel was the only one of them who would possibly be found not guilty in a war crimes trial.
I think you are right about about that.Rommel was a good decent guy and a brilliant general fighting against overwhelming odds.
I'm just imagining what these fiends did to innocent people who had absolutely no defense. Hundreds of thousands died terrible deaths, and now these animals are cowering in fear.
They probably thought the would never have to pay for their crimes against humanity.
"...Rommel..."
Too bad General Patton didn't get his way...he wanted to bring Rommel and a few other Germans over to his side and roll east to drive the Russians back to Moscow. And the two of them, with their tank corps, could have done it. And that sorry @$$ Montgomery probably would have joined them after moaning that they couldn't possibly do it without him. (Was Patton's death when his jeep went off the road really an accident?...)
It was about the second week on December last year. I remember because I was in Vienna when it happened.
Maybe he could ask the US Senate to try him. They have a history of completely ignoring evidence in order to get not guilty verdicts.
I hope they charge everyone who helped him.
Tsk, tsk -- that should be "cruelties he allegedly inflicted." Where's your journalistic objectivity, Reuters?
wonder if his question was going to be, "Are you going to throw me off a 4 story bldg?"
What is the method for the death penalty in Iraq with the new government?
True.
"I'm just imagining what these fiends did to innocent people who had absolutely no defense. Hundreds of thousands died terrible deaths, and now these animals are cowering in fear.
"They probably thought the would never have to pay for their crimes against humanity."
These mass murdering thugs are as bad as the Nazis under Hitler.
Even worse are the American Politicians and Mediots who ignore and spike the terrible realities of these mass murders and crimes against innocent Iraqis. These clymers are probably more guilty than the Iraqis. They created the enivironment where tyrants can do these crimes without media reprisals.
Castro, Mao, Stalin, the N Viets after we left Nam and other mass murdering tyrants were ignored by the mediots for decades as they killed millions. Our military and GW get accused of war crimes for Victoria Secret underwear being put on the heads of the $oddomites in jail. Yet the mediots continue to ignore the horrible crimes committed by the $odomite and for him.
Sounds like a conspiracy to me.
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