Prosecutors: Saddam OK'd Shiite executions (AP) Updated: 2006-02-28 21:50
Prosecutors at Saddam Hussein's trial presented a document Tuesday they said
was signed by the former leader approving the executions of more than 140
Shiites in southern Iraq after an assassination attempt in the 1980s.
After about two hours of hearing documents, the court adjourned until
Wednesday.
The document was among several presented by chief prosecutor Jaafar
al-Moussawi concerning the killings of Shiites from the town of Dujail in 1982.
A memo from the Revolutionary Court, dated June 14, 1984, announced that 148
suspects had been sentenced to death by hanging and listed their names. The
prosecutor said the signature on the memo was that of the court's head, Awad
al-Bandar, one of Saddam's co-defendants.
A document dated two days later was a presidential order approving all 148
death sentences. The paper was signed by Saddam, al-Moussawi said, displaying
the document with the signature on a screen in the court room.
The sentences were passed after an "imaginary trial," al-Moussawi told the
court.
"None of the defendants were brought to court. Their statements were never
recorded," he said.
The documents were presented after Saddam's lawyers ended their monthlong
boycott of the tribunal.
The defense team's participation appeared to vindicate the tough approach
chief judge Raouf Abdel-Rahman has taken since taking over the tribunal last
month, pushing ahead with the proceedings even when the lawyers — and, at times,
the defendants themselves — refused to attend.
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