By HAMZA HENDAWI
Associated Press Writer
6:57 AM PDT, July 1, 2004
BAGHDAD, Iraq —
A defiant Saddam Hussein rejected charges of war crimes and genocide in a court
appearance Thursday, telling a judge "this is all theater, the real criminal is
Bush."
Saddam was handcuffed when brought to the court but the shackles
were removed for the 30-minute arraignment at Camp Victory, one of his former
palaces on the outskirts of Baghdad.
"I am Saddam Hussein, the
president of Iraq," Saddam twice said, according to a reporter in an official
media pool. He was alternately downcast and defiant, becoming more animated in
his exchanges with the judge as the hearing went on.
In his first
public appearance since he was captured seven months ago, Saddam refused to sign
a list of charges against him unless a lawyer was present, and he questioned the
court's jurisdiction.
"Please allow me not to sign until the lawyers
are present. ... Anyhow, when you take a procedure to bring me here again,
present me with all these papers with the presence of lawyers. Why would you
behave in a m anner that we might call hasty later on?" he said.
Saddam appeared most agitated when the subject came to the invasion of
Kuwait -- one of the broad charges against him.
"The armed forces went
to Kuwait," Saddam said. "Is it possible to raise accusations against an
official figure and this figure be treated apart from the official guarantees
stipulated by the constitution and the law? Where is this law upon which you
are conducting investigations?"
He also said the invasion was carried
out "for the Iraqi people." When he referred to the Kuwaitis as "dogs," the
judge admonished him for using such language in a court of law.
The
seven broad charges against Saddam are the killing of religious figures in 1974;
gassing of Kurds in Halabja in 1988; killing the Kurdish Barzani clan in 1983;
killing members of political parties in the last 30 years; the 1986-88 "Anfal"
campaign of displacing Kurds; the suppression of the 1991 uprisings by Kurds and
Shiites; and the 1990 invasion of Kuw ait.
Specific charges will be
filed later, Iraqi officials said. Those charges were expected to include war
crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity. A formal indictment with specific
charges is expected later, said Salem Chalabi, director of the Iraqi Special
Tribunal. The trial is not expected until 2005.
Saddam wore a
charcoal-colored, pinstriped jacket with a white shirt open at the collar, and
black trousers and shoes. He often stroked his trimmed, gray-and-black beard
and he had heavy bags under his eyes. He sat calmly, gesturing with his hands
while addressing the court and sometimes taking notes on a piece of yellow
paper.
His appearance was in sharp contrast to televised images of him
after his December capture, when he seemed heavier, his beard was longer and his
hair was gray and unkempt.
The 67-year-old Saddam was seated in front
of the judge, with a wooden bar separating the two. The tape showed the judge
from behind and from the side.
When asked if he could afford a lawyer,
Saddam retorted: "The Americans say I have millions hidden in Switzerland. How
can I not have the money to pay for one?"
Saddam was flown by
helicopter from an undisclosed location and driven to a courtroom on a U.S.
base, the report said. He was led from an armored bus escorted by two Iraqi
prison guards and ushered through a door guarded by six more Iraqi policemen.
The bus was escorted by four Humvees and an ambulance.
Strict pool
arrangements severely limited media access to the hearing. The pool video,
which was cleared by the U.S. military, was initially broadcast without sound,
but some parts of the tape were later released with sound.
At one
point, according to a commentary by Arab broadcaster Al-Jazeera, Saddam asked
the judge whether he would be tried under laws from the Saddam era or "under
which law?"
Saddam told the court that the U.S. and multinational
troops in Iraq were not "coalition troops but invasion troops," according to
Al-Jazeera. < br>
Saddam insisted on the judge referring to him as the
"president of the Republic of Iraq" because "this would be respecting the will
of the people," according to Al-Jazeera.
Saddam and 11 of his top
lieutenants were transferred to Iraqi custody Wednesday. They no longer are
prisoners of war but are still locked up, with U.S. forces as their jailers.
"The next legal step would be that the investigations start proper with
investigative judges and investigators beginning the process of gathering
evidence," Chalabi said. "Down the line, there will be an indictment, if there
is enough evidence -- obviously, and a timetable starts with respect to a trial
date."
"They were surprised that they were told they're in Iraqi
custody," Chalabi told AP Radio.
President Ghazi al-Yawer told an Arab
newspaper that Iraq's new government has decided to reinstate the death penalty,
which was suspended during the U.S. occupation.
U.S. and Iraqi
officials hope the trial will lay bare th e atrocities of Saddam's regime and
help push the country toward normalcy after years of tyranny, the U.S.-led
invasion and the insurgency that blossomed in its aftermath.
But the
trial could have the opposite effect, possibly widening the chasm among Iraq's
disparate groups -- Kurds, Shiites and Sunnis.
"It's going to be the
trial of the century," National Security Adviser Mouwafak al-Rubaie told
Associated Press Television News. "Everybody is going to watch this trial, and
we are going to demonstrate to the outside world that we in the new Iraq are
going to be an example of what the new Iraq is all about."
Wednesday's
transfer of legal custody took place in secret. Chalabi said the defendants
were brought one-by-one into a room at an undisclosed location and informed of
the change in their status to criminal suspects. They were told they will
appear in court within 24 hours to hear charges, he said.
According to
Chalabi, Saddam said, "Good morning," as he entered the room, li stened to the
official explanation, and was told he could respond to complaints Thursday. He
then was hustled away.
"Some of them looked very worried," Chalabi said
of the other defendants, who include former Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz,
the regime's best-known spokesman in the West; Ali Hasan al-Majid, known as
"Chemical Ali"; and former Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan.
The
initial proceedings are taking place under a blanket of secrecy because of fears
that insurgents, many of them Saddam supporters, might exact revenge on
participants.
Issam Ghazawi, a member of Saddam's defense team, said he
received threats in a telephone call Wednesday from someone claiming to be a
minister of justice, who promised that anyone trying to defend Saddam would be
"chopped to pieces."
U.S. officials had hoped to delay proceedings
against Saddam until the Iraqis set up a special court and trained a legal team.
But Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, whose government regained sovereignty Monday,
insisted publicly on taking legal custody of Saddam quickly. The Americans
agreed on condition they keep him under U.S. lock and key.
Trying
Saddam and top regime figures presents a major challenge to the Iraqis and their
American backers.
Allawi's government is due to leave office after
January elections, and a second national ballot will be held by December 2005.
That raises the possibility that national policy on the prosecution of Saddam
and his backers could change depending on the makeup of the government.
Most of Iraq's 25 million people were overjoyed when Saddam's regime
collapsed, and many are looking forward to the day he will be punished.
"Everyone all over the world agrees that Saddam Hussein should be put on
trial in front of the Iraqi people," Baghdad resident Ahmad al-Lami said.
However, the turmoil of the past 14 months has led to a longing for the
stability and order of the ousted dictatorship, at least among Sunni Arab
Muslims who now feel threatened by the possibility of a Shiite-dominated
government.
Nostalgia for Saddam -- a Sunni -- is strongest in
Sunni-dominated parts of the country most heavily involved in the insurgency.
"Saddam Hussein was a national hero and better than the traitors in the
new government," a resident of Saddam's hometown of Tikrit told APTN, refusing
to give his name.
In Fallujah, an insurgent stronghold west of Baghdad,
resident Ammar Mohammed suggested the Americans should be put on trial first
because they "killed thousands of Iraqis in one year of occupation."