Iraqis differ on Saddam's appearance in court

Iraqis, who watched former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein appearing in court on TV Thursday, had diverse views on the legal proceedings of the former dictator.

"I think Saddam deserves to be sentenced to death for the mass graves we have seen in Iraq," said Nawal Ahmed, a 30-year-old Kurdish woman from Erbil, northern Iraq.

The arraignment of Saddam and 11 of his top aides, including former Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz and Hassan Ali al-Majid, known as "Chemical Ali," was finished earlier Thursday.

An Iraqi judge read seven charges against Saddam, including the bloody suppression of Shiite uprising, a decade of war with Iran and the invasion of Kuwait.

Abbas Mustafa, a 28-year-old Baghdad resident, suggested that people should have a good look at Saddam's face. "It was not a face of a prisoner. He was running the trial, that's why he was the president of Iraq for long time," he said.

Dressed decently in a tieless suit, the 67-year-old former president still held his defiance. "I am Saddam Hussein, president of Iraq," he declared, saying even the invaders in Iraq could not deprive him of this title.

Alternating between listening and gesticulating to the judge, Saddam mocked the court as "theatre". "This is all theatre. The real criminal is (US President George W.) Bush," he derided.

Although Saddam was charged with poison gas attacks of Kurds and the killing of numerous religious leaders, political figures and dissidents during his reign, some Iraqis still thought the former ruler had some merits and demanded a fair trial of him.

"At least Saddam provided us with security. We have seen nothing good from the Americans," said Ali Hamza, a 47-year-old engineer.

Abdul Rahman Muhammed, 55, a secondary school teacher in Baghdad, said it was not the right time for such trial "because it will provoke part of the Iraqi people and I don't think we need this to happen."

"We want a fair trial where Saddam can speak and defend himself against the fabricated charges filed against him," said Muhsen Ubaid, a 39-year-old shopowner in western Baghdad.

"Saddam used to punish only the bad people who used to destabilize the country," he claimed.

Muwafaq Ali, a 49-year-old chief engineer, said that if it was really the Iraqis who brought Saddam to court he would accept the idea, "but they are the occupiers and those who came with them who brought Saddam to court."

"It reminds me of the day of the fall of Baghdad. At that time I thought if many Iraqis wanted to get rid of Saddam, we should do it, not the Americans, " he said.

Saddam arrived at a military base in a US helicopter and was then driven in an armoured bus to the makeshift courtroom in one of his former palaces near the Baghdad International Airport.

According to the pool reporters, a defiant Saddam was brought into the courtroom handcuffed. After his arrival at the room, his handcuffs were removed.

Saddam and his 11 former top aides were handed over to Iraqi custody on Wednesday, two days after sovereignty was formally remitted to the Iraqi interim government.

But Saddam would remain in the physical custody of US forces after the handover.

Source: Xinhua