Saddam-era judge stands by execution orders

BAGHDAD, Mar 13 (Reuters) The judge who oversaw the trial of 148 Shi'ite men accused of plotting to assassinate Saddam Hussein in 1982 said in court today he had personally issued a death warrant for them and insisted it was legal.

''They attacked the president of the republic and they confessed,'' Awad Hamed al-Bandar, former head of Iraq's Revolutionary Court, said in testimony before the judges trying him, Saddam and six others for crimes against humanity.

The killing of the 148 men from the Shi'ite town of Dujail after the assassination attempt is at the heart of the case.

Iraq's chief prosecutor Jaafar Moussawi produced documents he said proved that 46 of the 148 men had died under interrogation. But Bandar responded that all 148 men were present when he sentenced them.

Saddam, who was not in court today, said during his last appearance on March 1 that he had ordered the trial under Bandar which led to the executions, and also the destruction of Dujail farms but said this had been an entirely legitimate procedure.

''Where is the crime?'' the former president demanded to know.

Bandar, the first of the four high-ranking defendants to give testimony in his own defence, accused the dead men of being part of a plot by the Iranian-backed Dawa party to kill Saddam during Iraq's war with Iran.

''It was provoked by Iran. They were members of Dawa. The leadership of Dawa was in Iran,'' Bandar said.

The present leader of Dawa, a Shi'ite Islamist party, is Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, whose government has pressed for the Dujail trial to move forward rapidly.

''The target was the head of state and we were in a state of war with Iran,'' Bandar said. ''He was the commander of the armed forces ... The court took two weeks. The 148 men had confessed.

''It is all in the files.'' CONTESTED STATEMENTS In a phase of the trial that began yesterday, four local Baath party officials from Dujail had already made their appearances -- three of them contesting sworn statements that the prosecution said they had made in pre-trial proceedings.

One of these, appearing today, said he could not read or write and denied making a statement signed by him in which he purportedly said he saw Saddam's half-brother and his vice president in Dujail when alleged plotters were being rounded up.

''The judge wrote this. I didn't say it. It is a lie. I can't read or write,'' Mohammed Azawi Ali al-Marsoumi told the court.

Saddam may testify later today or, more likely, in the coming days before the trial adjourns for several weeks.

White-moustached and wearing a white headdress, Marsoumi accused the investigating judge, Raed Jouhi, of fabricating evidence -- drawing a rebuke from chief trial judge Raouf Abdul Rahman.

''You wrote that!'' Marsoumi later yelled at the chief prosecutor after Jaafar al-Moussawi read the statement. ''I didn't say that ...

I said one word and they wrote 30 lines.'' Among the three defendants to testify yesterday, one contested his sworn statement because he said he had signed it without having his spectacles and another said he had not read the statement before signing because he trusted Jouhi.

All four of those heard earlier are from Dujail.

REUTERS SB PM1814