Family testify in defence of Saddam co-accused

BAGHDAD, May 16 (Reuters) Defence witnesses for Saddam Hussein's lesser-known co-defendants today testified, hoping to show that minor Baath party officials caught up in the ''trial of the century'' were innocent of crimes against humanity.

Witnesses including sons and other family members said the defendants, who like Saddam face possible hanging if convicted, were not involved in a crackdown following a 1982 assassination bid against him in the town of Dujail.

On the contrary, they too had suffered as a result of the repressions, including seeing farms razed.

Saddam and seven co-accused, three other senior figures and four ex-local members of his Baath Party, were yesterday formally charged over the killings of 148 Shi'ite villagers in Dujail.

''My father is a tribal sheikh and people loved him for his love and fairness,'' said a witness for Abdullah Kathim Ruwaid, one of the four Dujail Baathists accused of taking part in reprisals and arrests 24 years ago.

''My father didn't do anything wrong,'' he said.

Another son of Ruwaid told the court: ''My father is not a security officer ... my father is a farmer working in his orchard.'' Witnesses spoke anonymously behind a curtain, as many prosecution witnesses have done during the trial that started in October.

But they themselves made the relationship clear, prompting the chief prosecutor to ask the court to take into account that they were not impartial.

The proceedings mark a dramatic fall from power by a man who had dominated Iraq for decades. Saddam insists he is still the country's legitimate president and denies any crimes.

The former president and three other senior figures on trial, including his half-brother and former intelligence chief Barzan al-Tikriti, were not in court on Tuesday, following Monday's reading of formal charges.

Saddam refused to plead when accused of ordering the arrest, torture, killing or execution of 399 Shi'ite townsfolk from Dujail after a failed attempt on his life there in 1982. The chief judge rejected his claim to still be president and immune.

NOT GUILTY PLEAS As with the other seven defendants, a not guilty plea was entered. Court officials say that after seven months of hearings, a further two or three months could bring a verdict.

The trial resumed yesterday after a three-week recess following the completion of the prosecution case.

Ruwaid's son, Mizhir, also a local Baath official at the time, seemed nervous as a witness spoke about him.

''He was married to a Shi'ite family and one of his wife's two brothers was imprisoned for four years in the Dujail case and the other fled the country. He had a question mark on him throughout his party career,'' the witness said.

The first defence witnesses spoke on Monday for another Baath party member from Dujail.

The other three were in court on Tuesday to hear their witnesses.

The trial will resume tomorrow with more such testimony. It was unclear when Saddam and other senior figures would attend the trial again.

Saddam, the judge yesterday said signed orders in 1984 approving the executions of 148 men from Dujail after a rapid court process -- even though some of them had already died under torture and 32 were under 18 and so protected by Iraqi law.

Reuters