BAGHDAD, 13 June 2006 — Guards at Saddam Hussein’s trial dragged his co-accused half-brother Barzan Ibrahim Al-Tikriti out of the Baghdad courtroom yesterday after an argument with the chief judge.
“This is dictatorship,” shouted Barzan as commotion erupted in the heavily protected courtroom. Defense lawyers accused guards of beating Barzan as they pushed him toward the door and the judge slammed his gavel on the desk to restore order.
Chief Judge Raouf Abdel Rahman had ordered that the former head of the intelligence service — who like Saddam and six other defendants face charges of crimes against humanity — leave the room after he repeatedly interrupted him.
“This is not a trial, this is a comedy, said a visibly angry Abdel Rahman.
As intelligence chief, Barzan is accused of ordering mass murder and torture. He said he is suffering from cancer.
It was not the first time that the judge ejected one of the defendants or members of the defense team during a trial that often sees shouting matches and tirades. Last month, guards manhandled a defense lawyer from the court.
Relations between the US-backed Iraqi court and the defense appear to have become increasingly strained after witnesses for the defendants began testifying last month.
The eight defendants are accused of crimes against humanity for reprisals that led to the killing of 148 Shiite men after an assassination attempt on Saddam in Dujail in 1982.
Defense lawyers have accused the prosecution, which completed its case in April, of trying to buy a witness and putting on the stand a man who perjured himself.
They have also protested against the arrest about 10 days ago of four of their witnesses on suspicion of making false allegations against the prosecution, saying they had been beaten and insulted.
“We are at a serious disadvantage to the prosecution,” US Defense lawyer Curtis Doebbler told the court as the session got under way.
At the trial’s previous session a week ago, the defense team sought to undermine the prosecution case by saying that 10 people out of those said to have been killed after the attempt on Saddam’s life were still alive 24 years later.
The defendants have pleaded not guilty or, like Saddam, were ruled to have so pleaded after contesting the US-backed court’s legitimacy. If convicted, they could be hanged.
