Defiant Saddam Rejects War Crimes Charges

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A defiant Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) rejected charges of war crimes and genocide against him in a court appearance Thursday, telling a judge "this is all theater, the real criminal is Bush," according to a reporter in an official media pool.

Saddam's hands were cuffed when he was brought to the court but the shackles were removed for the 30-minute arraignment at Camp Victory, a former Saddam palace on the outskirts of Baghdad.

"I am Saddam Hussein, the president of Iraq," Saddam twice said, according to the CNN reporter, who described him as alternately downcast and defiant. Other times, he appeared confused.

In his first public appearance since he was captured seven months ago, Saddam refused to sign a list of charges against him unless a lawyer was present, and he questioned the court's jurisdiction, according to the reporter. Saddam defended the invasion of Kuwait, saying it was "for the Iraqi people."

The seven broad charges against Saddam are the killing of religious figures in 1974; gassing of Kurds in Halabja in 1988; killing the Kurdish Barzani clan in 1983; killing members of political parties in the last 30 years; the 1986-88 "Anfal" campaign of displacing Kurds; the suppression of the 1991 uprisings by Kurds and Shiites; and the 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

Specific charges will be filed later, Iraqi officials said. Those charges were expected to include war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity. A formal indictment with specific charges is expected later, said Salem Chalabi, director of the Iraqi Special Tribunal. The trial is not expected until 2005.

Saddam wore a gray, pinstriped suit with an open-collar white shirt and black shoes. His beard was trimmed and he had heavy bags under his eyes, according to the first televised images of his appearance. He sat calmly, occasionally gesturing with his hands while addressing the court.

Saddam sometimes took notes on a piece of yellow paper and gestured with his hands. He was wearing a white with no tie and a charcoal-colored pinstriped jacket. He often stroked his trimmed beard and appeared thoughtful.

Saddam was flown by helicopter from an undisclosed location and driven to a courtroom on a U.S. base, the report said. He was led from an armored bus escorted by two Iraqi prison guards and ushered through a door guarded by six more Iraqi policemen. The bus was escorted by four Humvees and an ambulance.

"The next legal step would be that the investigations start proper with investigative judges and investigators beginning the process of gathering evidence," Chalabi said. "Down the line, there will be an indictment, if there is enough evidence — obviously, and a timetable starts with respect to a trial date."

Saddam and 11 of his top lieutenants were transferred to Iraqi custody Wednesday. They no longer are prisoners of war but are still locked up, with U.S. forces as their jailers.

"They were surprised that they were told they're in Iraqi custody," Chalabi told AP Radio.

President Ghazi al-Yawer told an Arab newspaper that Iraq's new government has decided to reinstate the death penalty, which was suspended during the U.S. occupation.

U.S. and Iraqi officials hope the trial will lay bare the atrocities of Saddam's regime and help push the country toward normalcy after years of tyranny, the U.S.-led invasion and the insurgency that blossomed in its aftermath.

But the trial could have the opposite effect, possibly widening the chasm among Iraq's disparate groups — Kurds, Shiites and Sunnis.

"It's going to be the trial of the century," National Security Adviser Mouwafak al-Rubaie told Associated Press Television News. "Everybody is going to watch this trial, and we are going to demonstrate to the outside world that we in the new Iraq are going to be an example of what the new Iraq is all about."

Wednesday's transfer of legal custody took place in secret. Chalabi said the defendants were brought one-by-one into a room at an undisclosed location and informed of the change in their status to criminal suspects. They were told they will appear in court within 24 hours to hear charges, he said.

According to Chalabi, the 67-year-old Saddam said, "Good morning," as he entered the room, listened to the official explanation, and was told he could respond to complaints Thursday. He then was hustled away.

"Some of them looked very worried," Chalabi said of the other defendants, who include former Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz, the regime's best-known spokesman in the West; Ali Hasan al-Majid, known as "Chemical Ali;" and former Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan.

The initial proceedings are taking place under a blanket of secrecy because of fears that insurgents, many of them Saddam supporters, might exact revenge on participants.

U.S. and Iraqi officials refused to say where Thursday's hearing would take place or release the name of the presiding judge. No pictures will be allowed of any Iraqi participants — except for the defendants — to protect them from attack. Only a few journalists will be allowed to attend.

Issam Ghazawi, a member of Saddam's defense team, said he received threats in a telephone call Wednesday from someone claiming to be a minister of justice, who promised that anyone trying to defend Saddam would be "chopped to pieces."

U.S. officials had hoped to delay proceedings against Saddam until the Iraqis set up a special court and trained a legal team. But Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, whose government regained sovereignty Monday, insisted publicly on taking legal custody of Saddam quickly. The Americans agreed on condition they keep him under U.S. lock and key.

Trying Saddam and top regime figures presents a major challenge to the Iraqis and their American backers.

Allawi's government is due to leave office after January elections, and a second national ballot will be held by December 2005. That raises the possibility that national policy on the prosecution of Saddam and his backers could change depending on the makeup of the government.

Most of Iraq's 25 million people were overjoyed when Saddam's regime collapsed, and many are looking forward to the day he will be punished.

"Everyone all over the world agrees that Saddam Hussein should be put on trial in front of the Iraqi people," Baghdad resident Ahmad al-Lami said.

However, the turmoil of the past 14 months has led to a longing for the stability and order of the ousted dictatorship, at least among Sunni Arab Muslims who now feel threatened by the possibility of a Shiite-dominated government.

Nostalgia for Saddam — a Sunni — is strongest in Sunni-dominated parts of the country most heavily involved in the insurgency.

"Saddam Hussein was a national hero and better than the traitors in the new government," a resident of Saddam's hometown of Tikrit told APTN, refusing to give his name.

In Fallujah, an insurgent stronghold west of Baghdad, resident Ammar Mohammed suggested the Americans should be put on trial first because they "killed thousands of Iraqis in one year of occupation."

Handcuffed in His Former Palace, Saddam Defiant

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 Hussein, 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 grey.

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, and soldiers say Saddam's playboy son Uday used one of the palace buildings for his assignations.

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?"

A video grab shows Iraq's deposed dictator Saddam Hussein writing notes while appearing before an Iraqi tribunal in Iraq July 1, 2004. Downcast but defiant, Saddam refused to recognize its authority and said the 'real criminal' was U.S. President George W. Bush.REUTERS/Pool

Defiant Saddam appears in court, scoffs at "theatre", insults Kuwait

BAGHDAD (AFP) - A defiant and unrepentant Saddam Hussein appeared in court to hear a string of charges for which he could face the death penalty, in a landmark moment for the new Iraq.

A visibly tired Saddam defended his August 1990 invasion of Kuwait and refused to sign legal papers after seven charges were read against him, an official of the Iraqi Special Tribunal said.

Insisting he was still president of Iraq during the 30-minute hearing, the ousted dictator, speaking in a hoarse voice, questioned the jurisdiction of the tribunal.

"This is all a theatre. The real villain is Bush," said a thin-looking Saddam, referring to US President George W. Bush.

The 67-year-old former strongman also insulted Kuwait. "How could you defend those dogs?" he asked, only to be rebuked by the judge that "such language is not permitted" in a court of law.

The toppled dictator was transported to the courtroom in an armoured bus flanked by four Humvees and an ambulance after flown there in a helicopter.

Upon arrival, he was led handcuffed and with a chain around his waist into the building by two Iraqi prison guards, while six more guards stood to attention at the door.

The handcuffs and chains were taken off before he stepped into the courtroom. Saddam, who has lost weight since his capture in December but sported a tidier beard, was dressed in a dark outfit.

During the hearing, Saddam looked around and made hand gestures at the judge as charges were read out against him that included the invasion of Kuwait and bloody suppression of an uprising by Iraq's Shiite majority in 1991.

"Kuwait is an Iraqi territory. It was not an invasion," Saddam declared according to a tribunal official who attended the hearing.

Before the hearing ended, Saddam was presented with a document to sign to acknowledge that he understood what was going on, understood the charges and that his rights had been read, but he refused to sign it.

Saddam's defence team, which has not yet been allowed to enter Iraq, on Thursday again slammed as "illegal" the Iraqi Special Tribunal trying the deposed dictator.

"This court is illegal since it was designated by an illegal authority, created by the occupation," one of the lawyers, Jordanian Ziad Khassawneh, said in Amman.

Minutes after Saddam left the courtroom, his former presidential secretary Abed Hamid Mahmud was brought in.

Ten other top members of the former regime were due to follow including former deputy prime minister Tareq Aziz and Saddam's first cousin "Chemical" Ali Hassan al-Majid.

Officials said videotape of the ex-president in court would be carefully checked before they are released to the public.

The faces of those involved, except for Saddam and 11 former aides who are due to appear later in the day, will be obscured to guard against any attacks by supporters of the disgraced despot.

The footage will be the public's first glimpse of Saddam since footage was released of a bearded and dishevelled former strongman after his arrest by American troops.

Justice Minister Malek Dohan al-Hassan said Saddam would be condemned to death if found guilty. The death sentence -- suspended by the US-led coalition -- was restored after Monday's sovereignty handover to an interim government.

Thursday's hearing began what is likely to be a tortuous and protracted process to apportion blame for the numerous atrocities committed in Iraq during Saddam's 24-year reign.

Majid, nicknamed Chemical Ali for the 1988 gassing of the Kurds, and ex-vice president Taha Yassin Ramadan are among Saddam's former chief aides who will also be read their charges on Thursday.

Former defence minister Sultan Hashim Ahmed, who was rumoured to have collaborated with the US military during the invasion in spring 2003, was also named in a tribunal statement on Tuesday.

They have been held under tight security at Camp Cropper, a US military detention centre at Baghdad's former international airport, according to a humanitarian organisation.

They will remain guarded by multinational forces who fear a jailbreak if they are handed over to Iraqi custody.

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