Prosecutors: Saddam OK'd Shiite executions
(AP)
Updated: 2006-02-28 21:50

Tuesday's session was one of the most orderly since the trial began in October. Saddam and his seven co-defendants entered the court and took their seats silently — in sharp contrast with nearly every other session, which began with Saddam and his half brother Barzan Ibrahim shouting slogans or arguing with the judge.

The former Iraqi president also ended a hunger strike he and some co-defendants started Feb. 12, two days before the last trial session, defense lawyer Khamis al-Obeidi said Sunday.

Prosecutors also displayed a March 1985 document said to be signed by Ibrahim — then the head of the Mukhabarat intelligence agency — ordering the executions to be carried out. The document also listed the 148 names.

Another document from the Revolutionary Court, dated March 23, 1985, confirmed that 96 executions took place.

Another 46 people were "liquidated during interrogations," a later Mukhabarat document stated. It also said four people were executed by mistake, even though their names were not on list of those sentenced to death — a man named Mahdi Abdel-Amir, two of his sons and his brother.

Saddam and the seven co-defendants are on trial for carrying out torture and illegal arrests and executions in the crackdown in Dujail. They face death by hanging if convicted.

Abdel-Rahman opened Tuesday's session by announcing that the five-judge panel had rejected a defense request that he and the chief prosecutor be removed.