Saddam lashes out at Bush, judge in court
(AP)
Updated: 2006-02-14 07:02

Screens in the courtroom, including the press gallery, showed a document in Arabic dated to 1984 allegedly written and signed by Saddam in which he ratified "the execution of the Dujail criminals." A handwritten note at the bottom was allegedly by al-Samarrai.

Asked if the note was his handwriting, al-Samarrai, 62, said he could not be sure.

"I don't remember," he said. "I don't remember anything at all."

Another document shown in the court was a 1987 memo from the presidential office's legal department saying two people sentenced to death in connection with Dujail had not been executed and suggesting that they be released because of old age and that those responsible for the "oversight" should be investigated.

A note written in the margin at the bottom, allegedly in Saddam's handwriting, approved the investigation but says the two people should be spared execution "because we cannot allow luck to be more compassionate than us even when compassion here goes to the undeserving."

Prosecutors have said that they had documents showing that Saddam was closely following the crackdown. Asked if he recognized the handwriting on the memo, al-Samarrai replied, "Mr. President." That sparked a swift and angry correction from chief prosecutor Jaafar al-Moussawi and Abdel-Rahman, the chief judge. "Defendant Saddam Hussein," they shot back.

Al-Samarrai insisted he knew nothing about the events in Dujail except what he said he had heard on foreign radio broadcasts.

"I am not fit to be a witness in this case," he pleaded with Abdel-Rahman and al-Moussawi. "I don't want to be a witness."

Both al-Samarrai and the second witness, former intelligence official Hassan al-Obeidi, complained they too had been brought to the court against their will. Both are in custody in connection with other cases, according to al-Moussawi.

In Monday's session, two judges sitting on each side of Abdel-Rahman read affidavits of 23 prosecution witnesses, with further accounts of imprisonment and torture in the crackdown.

Saddam and his seven co-defendants are on trial in the killing of nearly 150 Shiite Muslims in Dujail. If convicted, they could face the death penalty by hanging.