Hussein claims he was tortured

Published 9:00 pm Wednesday, December 21, 2005

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Saddam Hussein again grabbed center stage at his mass murder trial Wednesday with claims that Americans beat and tortured him and other defendants while in detention.

The deposed leader’s lengthy complaint came after witnesses graphically described how their captors administered electric shocks and used molten plastic to rip the skin off prisoners in a crackdown following an assassination attempt against Saddam in 1982.

A U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad called Hussein’s allegations “completely unfounded” but said “we are prepared to investigate.”

“Beyond that, we have no interest in being a part of what are clearly courtroom antics aimed at disrupting the legal process,” said Lt. Col. Barry Johnson.

The trial’s chief prosecutor, Jaafar al-Mousawi, said if authorities found evidence of abuse Hussein could be transferred to the physical custody of Iraqi troops.

The former Iraqi leader and seven co-defendants are on trial for the deaths of more than 140 Shiites after the attempt on Hussein’s life in the town of Dujail, north of Baghdad.

The prosecution’s first witness Wednesday testified about killings and torture in Dujail. Ali Hassan Mohammed al-Haidari, who was 14 in 1982, said Hussein’s regime executed seven of his brothers.

Al-Haidari said that he and other residents from Dujail – including family members – were taken to Baghdad and thrown into a security services prison, where people from “9 to 90” were held.

Blood poured from head wounds and skin was pale from electric shocks, he testified. Security officials would drip melted plastic hoses on detainees, only to pull it off after it cooled, tearing skin off with it, he said.

“I cannot express all that suffering and pain we faced in the 70 days inside,” he said.

Two witnesses later testified from behind a curtain. One of them, identified only as Witness No. 2, said security officials “attached clamps to my thumbs and toes and private areas and tortured me with electricity until foam came out of my mouth.”

After sitting quietly through several hours of testimony, Hussein launched into an extended monologue, saying he’d been beaten “everywhere on my body. The marks are still there.” He did not display any marks.

“I want to say here, yes, we have been beaten by the Americans and we have been tortured,” Hussein told the court before gesturing toward his seven co-defendants, “one by one.”

With the trial televised across Iraq, his claims of torture at the hands of U.S. troops may resonate with Iraqis who have been shocked by the abuse of detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison, a scandal which led to the convictions of nine Army reservists. More recently, U.S. troops discovered abused prisoners at secret detention centers run by the Iraqi Interior Ministry.

Earlier Wednesday before his accusations of torture, Hussein’s behavior had been calmer, and he appeared clean-shaven and in fresh clothes, wearing a dark suit but no tie. On some previous occasions during the trial, Hussein appeared disheveled and complained about being held in unsanitary conditions.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack called it “highly ironic” that Hussein would accuse his jailers of mistreatment.

“I know of nothing that would substantiate such a claim,” McCormack said. “Look, he’s been given to grandstanding in this trial, but where the focus should be is on the testimony of those people who were victimized by the tyranny, the oppression and the violence of Saddam Hussein. That’s what people should be listening to.”