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| Saddam vows not to return ‘to an unjust court’ | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Tuesday Dec 6 2005, 01:04 PM (192 Views) | |
| Oh Canada! | Tuesday Dec 6 2005, 01:04 PM Post #1 |
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MSNBC staff and news service reports http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10318347/ BAGHDAD, Iraq - The trial of Saddam Hussein and seven former lieutenants ended Tuesday with the former Iraqi dictator shouting that he wouldn't return Wednesday and telling the court to "go to hell." After a day of testimony from witnesses — including a woman who wept as she described abuse at the hands of Saddam's former guards — Saddam protested as unfair the judge's move to adjourn, arguing for more time to talk. "I will not return," Saddam yelled. "I will not come to an unjust court! Go to hell, you agents of America!" Story continues below ↓ advertisement He also complained that he had been wearing the same shirt and underwear for three days and deprived of shower and exercise facilities. "This is terrorism," he said. At that point, the audio was cut off to the media gallery and the curtain drawn so reporters could not tell what transpired afterward. It was not clear if the court would compel Saddam to attend. Earlier in court, a woman identified only as "Witness A" testified from behind a screen that she was assaulted and tortured with beatings and electric shocks by Iraqi guards as Saddam sat stone-faced, silently taking notes. "Witness A" told the court how she and dozens of other families from the town of Dujail were arrested in a crackdown after a 1982 assassination attempt against Saddam. Wadah al-Sheik, an Iraqi intelligence officer who died of cancer last month, ordered her to take off her clothes, she said, testifying from behind a light blue cloth curtain. "I was forced to take off my clothes, and he raised my legs up and tied up my hands. He continued administering electric shocks and beating me," she said. Several times, the woman broke down in tears, at one point moaning, "God is great. Oh, my Lord." She strongly suggested she had been raped, but did not say so outright. When the judge asked her about the "assault," she said: "I was beaten up and tortured by electrical shocks." The witness, who was 16 at the time of her arrest, repeated that she had been ordered to undress. She also said al-Sheik fired a gun at the wall to scare her. "I begged them, but they hit with their pistols," she said. "They made me put my legs up. There were five or more and they treated me like a banquet. Is that what happens to the virtuous woman that Saddam speaks about?" ‘I could not even eat’ The judge advised her to stick to the facts. She said she was thrown into a room with red walls and ceiling in an intelligence department building and that prisoners were given only bread and water to eat. "I could not even eat because of the torture," she said. She said prisoners were later moved to Abu Ghraib — the notorious prison on Baghdad's western outskirts — where the torture continued. She later quoted a security officer as telling her, "You should thank your God because you are here in the Intelligence Center. If you were in the directorate of security, no woman would remain virgin." Nevertheless, she also said that many fellow female detainees lost their virginity to security guards. Saddam and the others are on trial for the killing of more than 140 Shiites in the town of Dujail north of Baghdad and could be executed by hanging if convicted. The crackdown followed an assassination attempt, which Saddam told the court Tuesday was ordered by Iran. Chief Judge Rizgar Mohammed Amin told the court that defense attorneys would be told the identity of the witness but they must not pass them to anyone outside the tribunal. ... |
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3:33 AM Jul 11