Trial Resumes

The trial of Saddam Hussein resumed yesterday, and the judge called in each defendant individually to present his testimony.

Mizhar Abdullah Ruwayyid, an official from Saddam's former ruling Ba'ath Party, was called before the judge.

He and chief justice Raouf Abdel-Rahman then began arguing.

Abdel-Rahman asked Ruwayyid to tell the court what he was doing on the day of the assassination attempt against Saddam, whose motorcade was fired on as he visited Dujail on July 8th 1982.

Ruwayyid said that he was working as a telephone operator, and that he held only a low-level position in the Baath Party at the time.

He denied earlier testimony from previous witnesses, who accused him of helping in the roundup of Dujail residents following the shooting.

Quote:

"What they said was untrue, because they had personal animosity toward me."

Today so far, Mohammed Azawi Ali, a Baath official accused of informing on Dujail residents, has given testimony.

Quote:

"I didn't detain anyone, not even a bug. I didn't write any reports about people, and if there is someone in Dujail who says this bring him here and let him face me.

I don't know why they brought me here."

The chief prosecutor presented signed testimony by Ali to investigators, Ali then said:

"Read it and let my father be cursed. What are they going to do, execute me? I am dying anyway from heart problems and ulcers."

The trial continues.