Death Sentence Admission

Awad Hamed Bandar, Saddam Hussein's leading judge, admitted yesterday that he sentenced 148 Shia men to death in 1984 after a two week trial.

However, he also admitted that some may have been executed before the trial began.

The prosecution are trying to show that the 1984 trial was a predetermined act of vengeance, that qualified as a crime against humanity. They claim that the trial did not summon the defendants to appear, but simply used intelligence files of their alleged confessions and summarily issued death sentences.

Bandar denied this, and said that the defendants were present with lawyers, and the trial was conducted according to law.

Judge Raouf Rasheed Abdel Rahman asked:

"How were you able to try 148 people in two weeks when in this trial it takes three hours to take the statement of one defendant?"

Bandar replied:

"We were at war with Iran.

The defendants confessed that they acted against the president on orders from Iran.. If you were in my place, you would have done the same."

Judge Abdel Rahman added:

"In this trial, you and your lawyer have had 100 objections.

How could you manage [to finish] in two weeks?"

Bandar replied:

"The court had a right to make decisions in one session if the defendant confessed."

Abdel Rahman, not unreasonably, asked how 148 were able to fit into one courtroom at the same time. Needless to say Bandar claimed that the room was large.

Jaafar Mousawi, the prosecutor, produced two handwritten documents from the intelligence police files. One said 46 of the 148 Dujayl suspects had been "liquidated during interrogation" before the trial. The other document listed 11 defendants between the ages of 12 and 17, which is under the legal minimum for prosecution by the court.

Bandar played ostrich at this point, and stuck his head in the sand refusing to look when they were projected onto a screen in the courtroom.

Jaafar Mousawi asked:

"The Revolutionary Court issued death sentences after the defendants were already dead?

Isn't that strange?"

Bandar replied, contradicting his earlier statement that the had all stood trial:

"Is it so strange and surprising that someone might die in interrogation?"

Bandar also claimed that he could not remember the ages of the defendants, then admitted that he had not checked.

The absence of any mention of the defendents in the transcripts of the 1984 trial was attributed by Bandar to a typing error.

Saddam is expected to testify this week.