Saddam refuses to appear at his trial

Concerns over trial
Saddam and his co-defendants, who face hanging, have said their trial is a sham and have repeatedly disrupted it, haranguing the judge and chief prosecutor and accusing witnesses, most of whom have testified from behind a curtain out of fear, of lying.

Saddam’s threat not to attend the Wednesday session came at the end of a daylong session in which five witnesses related the events of a 1982 crackdown on Shiite Muslims.

The two women and three men that testified Tuesday were hidden from the public view and had their voices disguised to protect their identities.

The most compelling testimony came from the woman identified only as “Witness A,” who was a 16-year-old girl at the time of the crackdown. Her voice breaking with emotion, she told the court of beatings and electric shocks by the former president’s agents.

Ibrahim made his own complaints against the court Wednesday, saying that he spent more than eight months in solitary confinement in a windowless facility without air conditioning, electricity or running water.

“I couldn’t tell if it was day or night,” he said.

Ibrahim said guards would force him and other prisoners to exercise, or punish them when they refused by withholding cigarettes, tea or by reducing food rations.

“When I was detained I was wearing pajamas that I kept wearing for nine months until my brother came and gave me a dishdasha” — a traditional robe, he said. “For one year I did not drink tea or coffee. We had little food.”

Ibrahim said he lost nearly 40 pounds in two months.

Saddam's half brother discusses Dujail
At one point during the trial, Ibrahim sought to distance himself from the Dujail events, saying that his position as head of intelligence was a political post, and that the treatment of prisoners was not the responsibility of the security services.

Referring to the “red room” that two witnesses testified about Wednesday, Ibrahim said he “never set foot in such a place.”

Addressing the judge, he said: “I am not a jailer. I am a political official.”

Earlier, he said he was only responsible for the security of Saddam at the head of a team that numbered around 50.

He said when he heard about the Dujail incident, “I went there to see what happened. I was there on the first and second day. My responsibility ends when the detainee goes to prison.”

The trial has rekindled painful memories for many Iraqis.

However, after four sessions, some observers have voiced doubts about the strength of the Dujail case, and the judge has instructed some witnesses to focus their rambling testimony.

The U.N.’s human rights chief in Iraq says he sees little prospect of the trial meeting international standards.

International human rights and legal observers have raised concerns about witness protection, security and the fact that the death penalty cannot be commuted if it is imposed.

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