Defense considers Saddam's trial adjournment not enough

The defense lawyer for the former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, Khalil al-Duleimi, said that adjournment of the trial for 40 days is not enough time for the defense commission to prepare its defense for his client.

The court announced that the decision to adjourn the trial until November 28 was taken in order to listen to witnesses in the al-Dajil massacre accusation case which is being viewed by the court.

Chairman of the court, the Kurdish judge Razkar Muhammad Amin said that the court could not bring the witnesses to attend the opening session which was held on Wednesday for security reasons, noting the court will listen to the testimony of Waddah Ismael Khalil in the location where he is at, according to an appeal he proposes to the court.

Saddam Hussein and his 7 aides rejected all accusations read by judge Zakkar in the list of accusations, pertinent to killing 143 persons and committing crimes against humanity in al-Dajil town. The al-Dajil is said have happened in retaliation to an attack against the procession of Saddam Hussein during his visit to the town in 1982.

The court's hall where Saddam Hussein and his aides were on Wednesday witnessed vast controversy between the prosecuting attorney general and the defense team for the 8 accused men, because the attorney general did not address the case presented to the court.

In its memorandum, the attorney general indicated that the number of persons the former regime executed in al-Dajil incident was 148 and not 143. It also said that the Republican Guards broke into the city, hours after Saddam left it, and that Saddam himself witnessed several torture operations against the citizens of the town as hundreds of them were displaced and their farms were burnt and properties confiscated.

For their part, the defense lawyers doubted the legitimacy of the investigation held against their client and also the legitimacy of the trial whose date was set suddenly, giving the defense not enough time to prepare their defense for their clients.

Saddam refused to respond to the request made by the judge to introduce himself at the beginning of the court, stressing that he does not recognize this court nor the side authorizing it. He said "I do not recognize the aggression, and every thing built on falseness is false," stressing his constitutional right as the president for the state of Iraq.

The former Iraqi vice president Taha Yassin Ramadan confined to the same steps made by his president and refused to introduce himself before the court, while the other 6 accused men: the former chairman of the intelligence Barazan Ibrahim al-Takriti, Awad Ahmad al-Bander chief former judge at the revolutionary court and other four local officials in the Baath party.