Saddam’s defense rests

Baghdad

Saddam Hussein’s defense suffered several setbacks this week, as his months-long trial began to draw to a close. First, three defense witnesses recanted, saying Saddam’s lawyers had bribed them to lie on the stand. Then another defense witness said he lied under oath because the lawyers had kidnapped his son. In response, Saddam blamed the backtracking on the daily murders of Sunnis in Iraq. “How do you expect people, thinking they’re going to be subjected to the same fate, not to change their testimony?” he said. Later the judge ordered Saddam’s half brother Barzan al-Tikriti removed from the courtroom for screaming and ranting. As guards hauled him out, he shouted, “This is a dictatorship!” Final prosecution and defense statements will come in the next few weeks.

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