BAGHDAD,
July 1 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Appearing in court,
ousted Iraqi president Saddam Hussein denied all charges leveled
against him, questioned the jurisdiction of the tribunal and fired his
salvos at US President George W. Bush.
"I
am Saddam
Hussein , president of Iraq," a defiant Saddam told a
hearing in a courtroom at a US military base, that was once a lavish
palace with a man-made lake, where he was read seven charges, reported
Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Insisting
he was still president of the country during the 30-minute hearing,
Saddam said "the real criminal is Bush."
The
67-year-old former strongman made hand gestures at the judge as
charges, including the invasion of Kuwait, were read out.
"Kuwait
is an Iraqi territory. It was not an invasion," Saddam declared
according to a tribunal official who attended the hearing.
In
television pictures broadcast around the world shortly after the
proceedings, a visibly tired Saddam defended his August 1990 invasion
of Kuwait.
"How
could you defend those dogs?" he asked, only to be rebuked by the
judge that "such language is not permitted" in a court of
law.
Hearing
the charge that he ordered the killing of thousands of Kurds in a
poison gas attack at Halabja in 1988, Saddam seemed to imply he had
nothing to do with it.
"Yes,
I heard about that," he said.
Illegal
The
ousted president slammed the "theater" trial and question
the jurisdiction of the tribunal.
Before
the hearing ended, he was presented with a document to sign to
acknowledge that he understood what was going on, understood the
charges and that his rights had been read, but he refused to sign.
Saddam's
defense team, which has not yet been allowed to enter Iraq, on
Thursday again slammed as "illegal" the Iraqi Special
Tribunal.
"This
court is illegal since it was designated by an illegal authority,
created by the occupation," one of the lawyers, Jordanian Ziad
Khassawneh, said in Amman.
Iraqi
interim Justice Minister Malek Dohan Al-Hassan said Saddam would be
condemned to death if found guilty.
The
death sentence - suspended by the US-led occupation authority - was
restored after Monday’s, June 28, sovereignty
handover to an interim government.
Saddam
was transported to the courtroom in an armored bus flanked by four US
Humvees and an ambulance after flown there in a helicopter.
Upon
arrival, he was led handcuffed and with a chain around his waist into
the building by two Iraqi prison guards, while six more guards stood
at the door.
The
handcuffs and chains were taken off before he stepped into the
courtroom.
Officials
said videotape of the ex-president in court was carefully checked
before they are released to the public.
The
footage is the public's first glimpse of Saddam since footage was
released of a bearded and disheveled former strongman after his arrest
by American troops.
US
occupation troops captured the former strongman of Iraq in December as
he was discovered
hiding in a small hole at a farm near his hometown of Tikrit.
Law
experts had said that Saddam should
stand an Iraqi trial under Arab- International
supervision to guarantee a fair trail.
More
Trials
Minutes
after Saddam left the courtroom, his former presidential secretary
Abed Hamid Mahmud was brought in.
Ten
other top members of the former regime were due to follow including
former deputy prime minister Tareq Aziz.
Saddam's
first cousin Ali Hassan Al-Majid, nicknamed Chemical Ali for the 1988
gassing of the Kurds, and ex-vice president Taha Yassin Ramadan are
among Saddam's former chief aides who will also be read their charges
on Thursday.
They
have been held under tight security at Camp Cropper, a US military
detention centre at Baghdad's former international airport, according
to a humanitarian organization. They will remain guarded by the
so-called US-led multinational forces.
The
trial came one day after Iraq's interim government took
legal custody of Saddam and 11 of his top aides from the
US-led military.
