Saddam, Defiant, Scuffles With Guards
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BAGHDAD, Iraq – A defiant Saddam Hussein quarreled with judges and scuffled with guards at the opening of his long-awaited trial yesterday, rejecting the tribunal’s right to judge him and insisting he is still the president of Iraq.
If convicted, the 68-year-old Saddam and seven of his regime’s henchmen who appeared with him in the hearing could face the death penalty for their role in the 1982 killing of nearly 150 people from the mainly Shiite town of Dujail north of Baghdad after a failed attempt on Saddam’s life.
Yesterday’s session, held under tight security, was testy from the start, when the judge asked Saddam to take the stand first. As the courtroom fell silent, Saddam got up from his chair and took the podium, holding a copy of the Koran. He refused to state his name for the record and turned the question back on the presiding judge, Rizgar Mohammed Amin, a Kurd whose identity was revealed to the public only on the day of the trial.
“Who are you? I want to know who you are,” Saddam demanded.
“I do not respond to this so-called court, with all due respect to its people, and I retain my constitutional right as the president of Iraq,” he said. “Neither do I recognize the body that has designated and authorized you, nor the aggression because all that has been built on false basis is false.”
After repeatedly refusing to give his name, Saddam finally sat. Mr. Amin read his name for him, calling him the “former president of Iraq.”
“I said I’m the president of Iraq,” Saddam snapped back. “I did not say deposed.” Later, Saddam stood, smiling, and exchanged greetings with other defendants during a break in the proceedings. He then asked to step out of the room, but when two guards tried to grab his arms to escort him out, he angrily shook them off.
The guards, wearing blue bulletproof vests, tried to grab him again, and Saddam struggled to free himself. Saddam and the guards shoved each other and yelled for about a minute. In the end, he was allowed to walk independently out of the room, with the two guards behind him.
The three-hour session ended with Amin announcing an adjournment until November 28.
