AMMAN, 4 June 2006 — Eight Iraqis testifying in favor of the ousted President Saddam Hussein have been flown to Amman out of “concern on their safety”, a local newspaper reported yesterday.
The daily Al-Arab Al-Youm said that its reporters met “separately and at several places” with the eight witnesses, who were due to return to Baghdad when the Iraqi criminal court resumes trial of Saddam and seven co-defendants tomorrow. They are charged with killing 148 Shiites in 1982 at the village of Dujail, north of Baghdad, in the wake of an abortive attempt on the life of the former leader. The paper said that it withheld the names of the witnesses “at their request”.
The eight witnesses, seven men and a woman, said they were flown to Amman after the detention of four other defense witnesses by US troops and “agents of the Iraqi Interior Ministry”, which is reportedly run by overwhelmingly Shiite personnel.
