Saddam would prefer firing squad over hangman

BAGHDAD – Saddam Hussein, weak from a hunger strike, said yesterday he had been forced to attend his trial for crimes against humanity and would rather be shot than hanged if found guilty.

“I wrote you a petition clarifying that I don’t want to come to court, but they brought me against my will …I have been on a hunger strike since July 8,” the former Iraqi leader, holding a Koran, told chief judge Raouf Abdel Rahman. The entire defence team boycotted the latest session in the controversial trial which is approaching its conclusion.The court was adjourned until today after a court-appointed lawyer delivered the final argument for Saddam.The ousted leader has the right to speak again.Saddam, 69, had been fed through a tube during a hunger strike to protest against what he says is an unfair trial.The man who ruled Iraq with an iron fist said he would rather face a firing squad if convicted.”I advise you as an Iraqi, if you were in a circumstance in which you have to issue a death penalty you have to remember that Saddam is a military man, and in this case the verdict should be death by shooting not by hanging,” he told the judge.Saddam appointed himself to head the army and never served as a soldier before taking power.The hunger strike had not taken the edge off Saddam’s defiance, exhibited throughout the trial in Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone, home to some of his former palaces.Although his once imposing voice was weak the former Iraqi leader, who had lost some weight, behaved angrily at times.When the court-appointed lawyer was about to read his closing argument, Saddam interrupted him: “The argument was written by a Canadian American agent.”- Nampa-ReutersThe entire defence team boycotted the latest session in the controversial trial which is approaching its conclusion.The court was adjourned until today after a court-appointed lawyer delivered the final argument for Saddam.The ousted leader has the right to speak again.Saddam, 69, had been fed through a tube during a hunger strike to protest against what he says is an unfair trial.The man who ruled Iraq with an iron fist said he would rather face a firing squad if convicted.”I advise you as an Iraqi, if you were in a circumstance in which you have to issue a death penalty you have to remember that Saddam is a military man, and in this case the verdict should be death by shooting not by hanging,” he told the judge.Saddam appointed himself to head the army and never served as a soldier before taking power.The hunger strike had not taken the edge off Saddam’s defiance, exhibited throughout the trial in Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone, home to some of his former palaces.Although his once imposing voice was weak the former Iraqi leader, who had lost some weight, behaved angrily at times.When the court-appointed lawyer was about to read his closing argument, Saddam interrupted him: “The argument was written by a Canadian American agent.”- Nampa-Reuters