JEDDAH, 20 October 2005 — The appearance of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in a Baghdad court yesterday (along with seven co-defendants), which is trying him for a 1982 massacre of 150 Shiites in the village of Dujail, evoked mixed reactions among Saudis who gathered around television sets across the country to watch the trial. Yet they all agreed on one thing: That Saddam deserves the punishment that he will get at the end of the trial.
Abdul Aziz Bu Hajar, a teacher from Madinah, said that although he felt sorry to see those once mighty and brutal men reduced to quivering cowards, he wanted them to be heavily punished for the all of the innocent Iraqis they had killed in the past.
“Saddam’s life was full of killing innocent people and wiping out villages. At the end he will drink from the same cup he has given to his people. I do not think that executing Saddam once will be a fair punishment. He should be executed for every person he killed when he ruled Iraq,” said Bu Hajar.
“The whole trial seems to be politically motivated,” said Faiz Al-Najdi, a Riyadh-based executive. “It is designed to please a certain section of Iraq... It is not meant to mete out justice to Saddam Hussein.”
Muhannad Ali, a student, disagreed, saying: “Saddam was a dictator, and all dictators have very bad endings. He should have predicted his own end by reading history. If he looked at people before him, like Hitler and Mussolini, he should have known that he was no different from them and that he would have the same fate they had at the end. At least he will stand and face justice. I think at the end he will receive the death penalty.”
“He is a criminal and he deserves to die by sword,” said Saeed M. Al-Attas, a travel executive. “He killed hundreds of innocent and pious Muslims. He has been a Baathist all his life,” he said. “I am not impressed, as some of my friends are, of his carrying and reading out aloud from the copy of Holy Qur’an that he is carrying in his pocket during the trial. I wish he had been a good Muslim when he was in power. What did he do in Kuwait? It was he who was responsible for so much death and destruction in the region. It was he who paved the way for the illegal US presence in the region,” he added.
Abu Abdullah said that when he studied in Detroit, Michigan, he encountered many Iraqis living there and listened to their horrifying stories.“Iraqis are scattered all around the world because of Saddam. They are not living abroad because of poverty. Iraq is a rich country but because of Saddam, the money was spent on fighting unnecessary wars and putting the Iraqi people into a hell-hole. Everything has an end. Saddam must have known that this is the way he would end. I support the death penalty for this criminal,” said Abu Abdullah.
Buthaina Al-Shehry, a bank employee, said the whole trial was a farce. “There can be no two opinions that Saddam is a criminal. But those who are trying him are criminals as well. The so-called special tribunal has no legitimacy since it was created by foreign invaders,” she said.
Abu Hamza, a Saudi businessman, said, “I watched Saddam when he appeared in court. To me he did not change at all. He is still arrogant and crazy, because he still believes that he is the president of Iraq. I felt sorry for him because his voice was weak and I think he has a mental problem. He should appear in front of a psychiatrist before he appears in court to make sure that he is fit to stand trial. They should also examine the head of his deputy, Taha Ramadan, because he also thinks that Saddam is still the president of Iraq. Saddam’s refusal to recognize the authority of the court is a perfect example that he has lost his mind.”
Jeddah-based Sudanese national Muhammad Al-Haj felt Saddam is a tough nut to crack. “Through the live proceedings of the trial he is getting back at his tormentors. He may be a criminal but at the trial he is the underdog. It is natural for people in the Arab world to be sympathetic toward him just because he is one man against the mightiest military power on Earth,” he said.
