Saddam Trial: New Judge Restores Order in the Court

Saddam Hussein and his co-defendants are back to their usual disruptive antics in the courtroom, according to an Associated Press report at Yahoo! News.  Fortunately, the new judge will have none of it and has demonstrated quickly that he will move forward without delays caused by the unruly defendants and their lawyers.  Some excerpts:

"A new judge cracked down Sunday in a chaotic session of Saddam Hussein's trial, ordering a co-defendant and a lawyer expelled from the courtroom. The entire defense team left in protest and Saddam was escorted out after a shouting match in which he yelled, "Down with America!"

"Despite the turmoil, chief judge Raouf Rasheed Abdel-Rahman pushed ahead, replacing the defense lawyers with court-appointed attorneys and hearing three prosecution witnesses before adjourning the trial until later this week.  . . . ."

"Abdel-Rahman wasted little time in distinguishing himself from his predecessor, Rizgar Mohammed Amin, telling the court at the start of the proceedings that anyone who broke the rules would be thrown out.

"The session, which was the first since Dec. 22, rapidly degenerated into chaos. Ibrahim called the court "the daughter of a whore" and refused to sit down. Abdel-Rahman ordered him removed, and Ibrahim scuffled with two guards before they dragged him out of the courtroom.

"Then defense lawyer Salih al-Armouti, a Jordanian, was forcibly removed from the court for yelling at Abdel-Rahman.

"The entire defense team walked out in protest."

More details in another AP report in the Houston Chronicle:

"Abdel-Rahman obviously came into the session aiming to impose control on a trial that has been plagued by delays and frequent outbursts by Saddam and Ibrahim, who is Saddam's half-brother and former intelligence chief.

"He began the proceedings with a show of authority, shouting at one defense lawyer for interrupting him and stressing in an opening statement that "political speeches" were not allowed and "if any defendant crosses the lines, he will be taken out of the room and his trial will be carried out with his absence."

"Ibrahim stood up, demanded to be allowed to speak and said, "Circumstances have forced us to deal with each other here, in spite of my belief that this tribunal is illegitimate, the daughter of a whore."

"The judge ordered him to sit down, shouting, "One more word and I'm throwing you out." When Ibrahim refused to sit, two burly guards grabbed him by the arms and dragged him out of the court.

"As they scuffled, Saddam stood and shouted, "Down with the traitors. Down with America." Defense lawyers began shouting as well. "Is this a street demonstration, are you lawyers?" Abdel-Rahman barked at them."

The disruption engineered by the defendants and their lawyers did not succeed in halting the trial.   More excerpts from the Yahoo! News AP report:

"The three prosecution witnesses — two women and a man — testified from behind a beige curtain, with their voices distorted to hide their identities.

"The first woman told the court she was arrested several days after the assassination attempt and her interrogators removed her Islamic headscarf and gave her electric shocks to her head.

"I thought my eyes would pop out," she said. Sixteen other members of her family also were arrested, and seven of them were killed in detention — including her husband, who she said was tortured to death.

"She added her daughter was less than two months old on the day of her arrest.

"I could not feed my little girl as she cried, there was no milk and no nursing bottle, she almost died," she said of the baby.

"The man, who testified last, told the court that he was only six when he was arrested while playing at his aunt's home with cousins. At the Abu Ghraib prison, guards lured him and other children with promises of apples and bananas only to tie them by the feet, he said.

"The other female witness said she and 14 other members of her family, including children as young as seven months, were rounded up from Dujail.

"They tortured a young girl who was blind. Women and children were crying, there was no food and no milk formula for children," she said, sobbing. "Has anything like that ever happened anywhere in the world?"