BAGHDAD, Iraq, AP -Saddam Hussein was forced to attend his trial Monday, looking haggard and wearing a robe rather than his usual crisp suit as he shouted, “Down with Bush.” His top co-defendant struggled with guards bringing him in and sat on the floor, his back to the judge, for much of the session.
After a stormy start to the session, prosecutors put on the stand a member of Saddam’s regime for the first time and produced documents trying to link the former Iraqi leader directly to torture and executions that allegedly took place in a 1982 crackdown in the Shiite town of Dujail.
But the witness, Ahmed Hussein Khudayer al-Samarrai — the head of Saddam’s presidential office from 1984-1991 and then again from 1995 until the fall of the regime in April 2003 — insisted he knew nothing about the events in Dujail.
“I am not fit to be a witness in this case,” al-Samarrai told the court, bringing a smile from Saddam.