Image taken from a video provided by the Iraqi Special Tribunal shows Sabawi Ibrahim al-Hassan -- the half-brother of Saddam Hussein. The special court charged with trying the ousted Iraqi leader and members of his regime released a videotape of the questioning of Sabawi. AFP
Iraq releases video of interrogation of Saddam's half-brother
BAGHDAD (AFP) - The special court charged with trying Saddam Hussein and members of his regime released a videotape of the questioning of the ousted leader's half-brother, Sabawi Ibrahim al-Hassan.
The latest, partly audible videotape came two days after the release of footage of the questioning of Saddam and four of his deputies about crimes committed against Shiites and Kurds.
The move has been seen as a bid by the court to reassert its independence from government pressure to speed up the trials.
But critics also say the releases are aimed at appeasing the public and many in the Shiite-dominated government of Ibrahim Jaafari by demonstrating that preparations for the trials are underway.
Sabawi was captured in late February and is believed to have played a pivotal role in financing the insurgency, which rages on more than two years after the regime's fall. Some reports at the time said he was handed over by Syria, where he was thought to have been hiding.
His interrogation was carried out on Monday, according to the tape obtained by AFP along with a statement from the Iraqi Special Tribunal.
It opens with Sabawi seated in the middle of an office in front of an unidentified judge behind a desk.
"Your full name and title?" asks the judge.
"Sabawi Ibrahim al-Hassan Mohammed," he answers, dressed in a white dishdash (traditional male robe), as he fidgets with what appears to be a prison identification bracelet around his wrist.
"Your title?" insists the judge referring to the tribal or town affiliations commonly attached to the end of Iraqi last names.
Saddam decreed that all Iraqis use only their father's name as surname. He and his clansmen were commonly called al-Tikritis in reference to their hometown of Tikrit, north of Baghdad.
"I am not one to be titled. I do not have one, but the tribe is Al-Baijat," says Sabawi referring to a tribe from the area north of Tikrit.
The audio is muted as Sabawi, who shares a mother with Saddam, begins shaking his head and speaking with what appears to be anger and agitation.
The judge smiles faintly.
"I started my career in 1978 as general director in the mukhabarat (intelligence service) and then on April 8, 1991 a decree was issued to appoint me head of internal security" he says.
"The crime you are accused of and which is the subject of the current investigation is the deportation and execution of Faili Kurds," says the judge.
"What?" shouts Sabawi.
"Their imprisonment and banishment, all according to article 12 of the court's laws," says the judge.
The audio is muted again as the camera zooms on Sabawi's face, lower teeth missing and sporting a scruffy salt-and-pepper beard.
Apart from the crimes allegedly committed by Saddam's henchmen against the Kurds, who are mostly Sunnis, the former regime is accused of persecuting the Failis, who are Shiite Kurds, because of their suspected ties to Iran.
Iraq fought a 1980-1988 war against Iran.
Next to appear was Mizban Khodr Hadi, a high-ranking member of the Baath party regional command and number 23 on the Pentagon's deck of cards of the 55 most wanted former regime figures.
He is dressed in a grey robe and sporting a thin mustache. He is shown at the end of the brief excerpt standing up with the camera closing up on his hands as he hesitates before signing a statement handed to him by the judge.
Hadi faces the same charges as Sabawi in addition to "crimes committed during the events of 1991," says a court statement that accompanied the tape.
The tape ends with a brief appearance by Walid Hamid Tawfiq, a former governor of the southern province of Basra, who is accused of involvement in repressing the Shiite uprising in the south after the 1991 Gulf War.
