Saddam: 'I am not afraid of execution'
(AP)
Updated: 2005-12-06 06:56

"Shootings started and nobody could leave or enter Dujail. At night, intelligence agents arrived headed by Barazan" Ibrahim, he said.

Ibrahim interrupted him: "I am a patriot and I was the head of the intelligence service of Iraq."

But Ibrahim also contested Mohammed's testimony, insisting there was no "Hall 63" and no place in the intelligence building large enough to accommodate as many prisoners as the witness said were there.

The second witness, Jawad Abdul-Aziz Jawad, who was only 10 when the assassination attempt occurred, testified that Iraqi helicopters attacked the town and used bulldozers to destroy the fields and orchards.

Jawad said Saddam's regime killed three of his brothers, one before the assassination attempt and two afterward.

Saddam's chief attorney, Khalil al-Dulaimi challenged the testimony, asking how a 10-year-old could remember such details.

"A 3-year-old child remembers a lot," Jawad replied. "An elementary school student does not forget if a teacher slapped him in the face. I live a catastrophe."

Earlier, Mohammed said he was told that Saddam asked a 15-year-old boy if he knew who he was. "He said 'Saddam'. Then Saddam hit him in the head with an ash tray."

The testimony drew an angry response from Saddam, who suggested that Mohammed needed psychiatric treatment and accused the court of bowing to American pressure.

"When the revolution of the heroic Iraq arrives, you will be held accountable," Saddam warned the chief judge.

"This is an insult to the court," Amin responded. "We are searching for the truth."

Saddam told Amin he hoped "that you will endure my frankness."

"How can a judge like yourself accept a situation like this?" Saddam asked. "This game must not continue. If you want Saddam Hussein's neck, you can have it. I have exercised my constitutional prerogatives after I had been the target of an armed attack.