http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,1782079,00.html
Aziz testifies at Saddam trial
Staff and agencies
Wednesday May 24, 2006
Tariq Aziz testifies during Saddam Hussein's trial. Photograph: Marco Di
Lauro/AP
Tariq Aziz, the former Iraqi foreign minister and international face of Saddam
Hussein's regime, made his first public appearance in three years today at the
deposed Iraqi leader's trial in Baghdad, hailing Saddam as a "colleague and
comrade".
Mr Aziz, 69, who also served as Iraq's deputy prime minister, is the
highest-profile defence witness in Saddam's trial for alleged crimes against
humanity. He entered the court clad in white short-sleeved pyjamas with a black
trim and looking frail.
The former Iraqi dictator and seven former members of his regime are charged
over a crackdown on the town of Dujail following an attempt to assassinate
Saddam.
Hundreds of men, women and children from Dujail were killed after shots were
fired at Saddam's motorcade in the town in 1982. Dozens died in prison, from
torture and poor conditions, and 148 men and boys were sentenced to death by
Saddam's revolutionary court for alleged connections to the assassination
attempt.
Mr Aziz, who has been held in US custody since the fall of the regime, with his
family complaining he is ill and should be freed, insisted the arrests were a
normal response to what had happened.
"If the head of state comes under attack, the state is required by law to take
action. If the suspects are caught with weapons, it's only natural they should
be arrested and put on trial," he said.
Saddam, whom he called "my colleague and comrade for decades", and his
co-accused Barzan Ibrahim, former head of Iraq's intelligence agency, were not
responsible for events in Dujail, Mr Aziz said.
Mr Aziz is not on trial and has not been implicated in the Dujail deaths.
Nonetheless, he said events in the town followed "a chain of assassination
operations against officials" in which he had also been targeted.
In 1980, Mr Aziz was attacked by militants in Baghdad who threw grenades at
him, killing civilians surrounding him.
Mr Aziz accused one of the political parties in Iraq's new national unity
government, the Shia Dawa party of the current prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki,
of being behind the attack.
Saddam's trial on charges connected to Dujail - seen as the least complicated
to prove among many possible charges - began in October, but has made slow
progress, repeatedly being interrupted by outbursts from Saddam and his
co-defendants and a series of defence boycotts.
There was more disruption today ahead of Mr Aziz's testimony, despite an
opening warning from chief judge Raouf Abdel-Rahman that he would not permit
insults to the court.
This immediately sparked an outburst from Saddam.
"Do you want to shut people's mouth this way?" Saddam asked, being told by the
judge in return: "Quiet. You are a defendant." "I am Saddam Hussein, your
president, and you did elect me," Saddam shouted back.
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