Saddam Hussein trial hears chilling testimony on torture

BAGHDAD – The court heard chilling evidence from a tearful woman testifying yesterday from behind a curtain in the gripping trial of deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein over a Shi’ite massacre 23 years ago.

The hearing got off to a chaotic start as the presiding judge called a recess just minutes after “Witness A” began to testify amid a row over whether or not her heavily disguised voice could be understood. Technical problems apparently resolved, the hearing resumed with the unnamed witness recalling harrowing moments from the early 1980s when she was tortured by intelligence agents and then flung into Baghdad’s notorious Abu Ghraib jail.The woman – just 16 years old when she was detained and held for four years – said with her voice electronically disguised that a man ordered her to undress before pistol whipping her and lashing her with cables, her legs up.”He said take off your clothes.He hit me with the pistol and I was forced to take my clothes and he lifted my legs upward and he hit me with cables and asked me to talk,” she said.Just metres away on the otherwise of the court room, the delayed television footage showed a silent Saddam sitting in the dock, his eyes blinking.Later taken to a room that was “all red” with another girl, the witness said they used their shoes as pillows to get some rest.”We put shoes as pillows.Then the door was locked and from a small window they gave us two loaves of bread,” said the woman, who was asked by the judge but could not identify her tormentors.”My youth …was destroyed,” said the woman recalling the legacy of her experiences.Today she described herself as a housewife.After a recess for lunch, another woman, “Witness B”, in her 70s, began to give evidence to the court in a closed session which allowed her to speak in her own voice.Mesmerising the world with disturbing accounts of torture from witnesses and angry tirades from Saddam blasting the legality of the proceedings, the Iraqi courtroom drama has been hailed the “trial of the century” by the local media.Saddam, for decades one of the most feared leaders in the Middle East before being ousted by invading US-led troops in 2003, is on trial with seven henchmen for the massacre of 148 people from the Shi’ite village of Dujail in 1982.He and his seven deputies, who have pleaded not guilty, face the death penalty if convicted over the killings, which followed an assassination bid against Iraq’s former strongman during a visit to the village.- Nampa-AFPTechnical problems apparently resolved, the hearing resumed with the unnamed witness recalling harrowing moments from the early 1980s when she was tortured by intelligence agents and then flung into Baghdad’s notorious Abu Ghraib jail.The woman – just 16 years old when she was detained and held for four years – said with her voice electronically disguised that a man ordered her to undress before pistol whipping her and lashing her with cables, her legs up.”He said take off your clothes.He hit me with the pistol and I was forced to take my clothes and he lifted my legs upward and he hit me with cables and asked me to talk,” she said.Just metres away on the otherwise of the court room, the delayed television footage showed a silent Saddam sitting in the dock, his eyes blinking.Later taken to a room that was “all red” with another girl, the witness said they used their shoes as pillows to get some rest.”We put shoes as pillows.Then the door was locked and from a small window they gave us two loaves of bread,” said the woman, who was asked by the judge but could not identify her tormentors.”My youth …was destroyed,” said the woman recalling the legacy of her experiences.Today she described herself as a housewife.After a recess for lunch, another woman, “Witness B”, in her 70s, began to give evidence to the court in a closed session which allowed her to speak in her own voice.Mesmerising the world with disturbing accounts of torture from witnesses and angry tirades from Saddam blasting the legality of the proceedings, the Iraqi courtroom drama has been hailed the “trial of the century” by the local media.Saddam, for decades one of the most feared leaders in the Middle East before being ousted by invading US-led troops in 2003, is on trial with seven henchmen for the massacre of 148 people from the Shi’ite village of Dujail in 1982.He and his seven deputies, who have pleaded not guilty, face the death penalty if convicted over the killings, which followed an assassination bid against Iraq’s former strongman during a visit to the village.- Nampa-AFP