Saddam Asks to be Executed if Found Guilty
26 July 2006
A protesting Saddam Hussein was brought to court in Baghdad Wednesday to attend the final phase of his trial for crimes against humanity.
Saddam says he was brought to court directly from a hospital, where he was being force-fed following a hunger strike that began on July 8.
The former dictator said he should be excused from Wednesday's session, in part because he refuses to deal with lawyers appointed to defend him. After he was ordered to remain in court, however, Saddam turned defiant and appeared to be anticipating the outcome of his trial.
Speaking to the court about himself, in the third person, the ex-dictator said, "Remember that Saddam was a soldier and therefore, if he is condemned to death, he should be shot and not hanged."
The chief judge Rauf Abdel Rahman replied by saying that Iraq's High Tribunal has not yet delivered its verdict.
Saddam began his hunger strike on July 8 to challenge the validity of the charges against him, which could bring the death penalty. He also is protesting the court's handling of the nine-month-long trial.
In addition, Saddam is demanding better security for the lawyers he hired to defend him -- three of whom have been murdered. The court appointed lawyers to defend Saddam after his chosen legal team began boycotting trial sessions weeks ago.
The charges against Saddam and seven of his former top aides are related to the killing of nearly 150 Shi'ite men and teenagers more than 20 years ago. The massacre took place in an Iraqi village suspected of harboring assassins who launched an unsuccessful plot against Saddam in 1982.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.
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