BAGHDAD, 22 December 2005 — Saddam Hussein, back in court yesterday on charges of crimes against humanity, accused Americans of beating and torturing him in an emotional outburst at the end of a day which saw three witnesses describe how they were tortured under Saddam’s rule.

“I have been hit by the Americans and tortured,” Saddam told the court. “Yes, I’ve been beaten on every place of my body and the signs are all over my body,” he added.

“We were beaten by the Americans and we were tortured, everyone of us,” he said, pointing to his seven co-accused in the dock who are being tried for the murder of some 140 Shiites killed in reprisal for an assassination attempt on the former dictator in 1982 in the town of Dujail. Saddam has been detained by US forces since his capture two years ago.

The chief prosecutor immediately said, if this were the case, he would ask US forces to hand over the defendants to the Iraqi authorities.

“Our enemy is not the American people. Our enemy is the American government which is destroying Iraq,” Saddam also said.

Saddam also described insurgents as “brave men,” adding that “it’s an honor to be proud of them.”

A senior US diplomat at the embassy in Baghdad, Christopher Reid, told CNN television the claims were “bogus.”

“It’s a strategic move. A move that has nothing to do with reality or the truth,” he added, saying the claims came after two prosecution witnesses had spoken of how they and their relatives were beaten and tortured after being arrested in Dujail in the wake of the 1982 assassination bid.

Saddam, 68, who defiantly boycotted the last hearing two weeks ago after denouncing the legality of the tribunal and telling the judge to “go to hell,” also lectured the court on how Iraq was being “humiliated” by the judicial proceedings against him.

The trial, which was to continue today, resumed yesterday after a two-week break allowing for a general election to elect the first full-term government since Saddam’s repressive Baathist regime was toppled from power by the 2003 US-led invasion.

“They tortured me with electricity and I wished I could die,” said one witness who testified from behind curtains to preserve his anonymity.

During one torture session Saddam’s half-brother Barzan Tikriti, who was in charge of the secret police, “was there eating grapes and I was screaming,” said the man who was arrested a day after the assassination bid on Saddam.

Another anonymous witness said he too was tortured with electricity.

“They would attack the clamps to my thumbs, toes and private parts and torture me with electricity until foam came out of my mouth,” he said.