BAGHDAD (AP) - Prosecutors in the trial of Saddam Hussein played an audiotape Monday said to be a phone call between the former Iraqi leader and one of his co-defendants discussing the destruction of farmland during a crackdown against Shiites in the 1980s.
In the tape, a voice purported to be that of Taha Yassin Ramadan said the levelling of farms and palm groves in the town of Dujail, carried out as retaliation for an attack on Saddam there, had been nearly completed and that the owners would be given compensation.
He also talks of moving "suspect elements" out of Dujail and the nearby town of Balad and bringing in "replacements, meaning we will try to change the social reality" in the two towns.
A voice said to be Saddam's but not readily identifiable as such asked questions in the tape, which was several minutes long. Prosecutors told the court that they had obtained the tape earlier but did not say from where.
Co-defendant Barzan Ibrahim disputed the tape, as well as reports by handwriting experts presented in the past three sessions. In the reports the experts concluded that signatures on documents connected to the crackdown were those of defendants.
"Where are you getting these documents? Whose hands are behind them?" Ibrahim asked. "Forging documents and imitating signatures is an age-old phenomenon."
After a session of about 90 minutes, chief Judge Raouf Abdel-Rahman adjourned the court to May 15.
The eight defendants are on trial for the deaths of 148 Shiites, the imprisonment of hundreds more and for torture and destruction of farmlands in a crackdown launched in the town of Dujail following a 1982 assassination attempt against Saddam.
A report by handwriting experts read in court Monday raised questions over purported signatures by one of the defendants, Mizhar Abdullah Ruwayyid.
It said the handwriting on documents - said to be letters sent by Ruwayyid to the Interior Ministry in the days after the shooting attack on Saddam informing on Dujail families involved in opposition activity - did not match samples given by Ruwayyid.
There was no immediate explanation for the failed match. In an earlier session, Ruwayyid insisted the document was a fake.
The five-member team of experts authenticated all the other 11 documents it had been asked to examine, including an order said to be signed by Saddam approving death sentences for the 148 Shiites.
In the past two sessions, reports from a team of three handwriting experts were presented authenticating those documents, but the expanded five-member team was asked to look at them a second time.
The defendants have insisted their actions in the crackdown were legal because they were responding to the attack on Saddam, whose motorcade came under fire as he passed through Dujail in July 1982.
The prosecution has argued that Saddam's regime sought to punish the entire town, imprisoning hundreds - including entire families of women and children. Some Dujail women have testified in court to being tortured while in prison. The prosecution has said 148 Shiites were sentenced to death in a fake trial in which they could not present a defence.
Ibrahim sharply defended the sentences against the men, who were accused of involvement in the attack on Saddam.
"We didn't kill them. The court sentenced them to death. There is a huge difference between killing and transferring the defendants to the court," he said. "They carried out an operation, an attempt on the president's life."
"We are not killers and you know that. We are men that built, we are men that struggled. We are patriot Iraqis who serve our people and country," he said.
The tape played in court Monday was part of the prosecution's attempt to show that Saddam was closely involved in the crackdown in Dujail. Prosecutors said the audio was a call between Saddam and Ramadan - then a member of the Revolutionary Command Council, a top leadership body that Saddam headed.
http://start.shaw.ca/start/enCA/News/WorldNewsArticle.htm?src=w042415A.xml
In the tape, a voice purported to be that of Taha Yassin Ramadan said the levelling of farms and palm groves in the town of Dujail, carried out as retaliation for an attack on Saddam there, had been nearly completed and that the owners would be given compensation.
He also talks of moving "suspect elements" out of Dujail and the nearby town of Balad and bringing in "replacements, meaning we will try to change the social reality" in the two towns.
A voice said to be Saddam's but not readily identifiable as such asked questions in the tape, which was several minutes long. Prosecutors told the court that they had obtained the tape earlier but did not say from where.
Co-defendant Barzan Ibrahim disputed the tape, as well as reports by handwriting experts presented in the past three sessions. In the reports the experts concluded that signatures on documents connected to the crackdown were those of defendants.
"Where are you getting these documents? Whose hands are behind them?" Ibrahim asked. "Forging documents and imitating signatures is an age-old phenomenon."
After a session of about 90 minutes, chief Judge Raouf Abdel-Rahman adjourned the court to May 15.
The eight defendants are on trial for the deaths of 148 Shiites, the imprisonment of hundreds more and for torture and destruction of farmlands in a crackdown launched in the town of Dujail following a 1982 assassination attempt against Saddam.
A report by handwriting experts read in court Monday raised questions over purported signatures by one of the defendants, Mizhar Abdullah Ruwayyid.
It said the handwriting on documents - said to be letters sent by Ruwayyid to the Interior Ministry in the days after the shooting attack on Saddam informing on Dujail families involved in opposition activity - did not match samples given by Ruwayyid.
There was no immediate explanation for the failed match. In an earlier session, Ruwayyid insisted the document was a fake.
The five-member team of experts authenticated all the other 11 documents it had been asked to examine, including an order said to be signed by Saddam approving death sentences for the 148 Shiites.
In the past two sessions, reports from a team of three handwriting experts were presented authenticating those documents, but the expanded five-member team was asked to look at them a second time.
The defendants have insisted their actions in the crackdown were legal because they were responding to the attack on Saddam, whose motorcade came under fire as he passed through Dujail in July 1982.
The prosecution has argued that Saddam's regime sought to punish the entire town, imprisoning hundreds - including entire families of women and children. Some Dujail women have testified in court to being tortured while in prison. The prosecution has said 148 Shiites were sentenced to death in a fake trial in which they could not present a defence.
Ibrahim sharply defended the sentences against the men, who were accused of involvement in the attack on Saddam.
"We didn't kill them. The court sentenced them to death. There is a huge difference between killing and transferring the defendants to the court," he said. "They carried out an operation, an attempt on the president's life."
"We are not killers and you know that. We are men that built, we are men that struggled. We are patriot Iraqis who serve our people and country," he said.
The tape played in court Monday was part of the prosecution's attempt to show that Saddam was closely involved in the crackdown in Dujail. Prosecutors said the audio was a call between Saddam and Ramadan - then a member of the Revolutionary Command Council, a top leadership body that Saddam headed.
http://start.shaw.ca/start/enCA/News/WorldNewsArticle.htm?src=w042415A.xml