Saddam: US denials of torture are 'lies'
(AP)
Updated: 2005-12-22 21:08

The first witness Thursday �� speaking from behind a curtain and with his voice disguised �� said he was 8 years old at the time of the killings in Dujail. He said his grandmother, father and uncles had been arrested and tortured, and that he'd never again seen his male relatives, implying they'd been killed.

Saddam said the court should not depend on the testimony of witnesses who had not reached adulthood at the time of the alleged crime. The witness then told a defense attorney he hadn't been arrested and didn't see any dead bodies.

Witnesses on Wednesday graphically described how their captors administered electric shocks and used molten plastic to rip the skin off prisoners in a crackdown following the assassination attempt in Dujail.

Saddam then grabbed center stage with claims that Americans beat and "tortured" him and other defendants while in detention.

A U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad called Saddam's allegations "completely unfounded" but said "we are prepared to investigate."

"Beyond that, we have no interest in being a part of what are clearly courtroom antics aimed at disrupting the legal process," said Lt. Col. Barry Johnson.

The trial's chief prosecutor, Jaafar al-Mousawi, said if authorities found evidence of abuse Saddam could be transferred to the physical custody of Iraqi troops.

The prosecution's first witness Wednesday testified about killings and torture in Dujail. Ali Hassan Mohammed al-Haidari, who was 14 in 1982, said Saddam's regime executed seven of his brothers.

Al-Haidari said that he and other residents from Dujail �� including family members �� were taken to Baghdad and thrown into a security services prison, where people from "9 to 90" were held.

Blood poured from head wounds and skin was pale from electric shocks, he testified. Security officials would drip melted plastic hoses on detainees, only to pull it off after it cooled, tearing skin off with it, he said.

"I cannot express all that suffering and pain we faced in the 70 days inside," he said.

Two witnesses later testified from behind a curtain. One of them, identified only as Witness No. 2, said security officials "attached clamps to my thumbs and toes and private areas and tortured me with electricity until foam came out of my mouth."