Saddam Hussein has asked the court in his trial in Baghdad to execute him by firing squad -- "not by hanging as a common criminal" -- if it convicts him of all charges and sentences him to death.
So for your last meal, you'd prefer lead to rope? Noted.
The former Iraqi leader said he was forcibly taken into court in the Irai capital against his will Wednesday morning from a hospital where he was being treated for the effects of a hunger strike. Thinner but combative, Hussein was making his first appearance in court since his hunger strike and hospitalization. He again rejected the tribunal as an agent of the U.S. occupation. Hussein's defense lawyers were not in court Wednesday as they continued a boycott started last month after one of them was kidnapped and killed. Among other things, they demanded increased security for the defense team.
Wednesday's session began with a 20-minute lecture by Hussein to the judges in which he complained that he was removed from his hospital bed where he was receiving nourishment through an IV and nasal feeding tube for the past three days. He said he has not eaten since he started a hunger strike on July 8. "The Americans brought me here against my will," Hussein said. He said he did not physically resist them since he is not a young man. Chief Judge Raouf Abdul Rahman read a medical report saying Hussein was fit to appear in court.
Hussein questioned why the court has not met his lawyers demands for more security. "Half of them have been killed," he said. In fact, three defense lawyers have died since the trial started last October, but only one worked directly for Hussein.
At the end of his speech -- in which Hussein looked at his court-appointed lawyer and told him he was "an enemy of the people -- the former Iraqi leader told the judges "I refuse to stand in front of this court. Take whatever measures you want." He then sat down and listened quietly as that court-appointed lawyer began to deliver a closing argument on his behalf. |