Defence lawyers in Saddam Hussein's trial have changed tactics, placing the chief prosecutor himself in focus, reports Doaa El-Bey Up until last week, the defence team for Saddam Hussein and co-defendants appeared focussed on establishing that the accused acted legally with regard to the Dujail case now being tried before the Iraqi Higher Criminal Court. Saddam and co-defendants are accused of extra-judicially killing 148 Shia Iraqis following an assassination attempt on Hussein in Dujail in 1982. As of last week, however, the defence strategy seems to have shifted with lawyers directly attacking the court prosecutor in the hope that the entire prosecution case will be reviewed. Acrimonious exchanges, with allegations of fabrication evoked, dominated the latest court sessions. This week's only session opened with the defence team protesting against the arrest of four of its witnesses. Two were apprehended last Wednesday inside the court itself after testimony that challenged Chief Prosecutor Jaafar Al-Mussawi. Two others were arrested in the Green Zone the same day. The Iraqi army allegedly beat them. The four witnesses included one who testified that 23 of the 148 Shias that Saddam and co-defendants are accused of killing are still alive. He confirmed that he had recently met some of them in Dujail. One defence team member read a list of 15 names from the same 148 who were either still alive, died of natural causes after Saddam and co-defendants were supposed to have executed them, or were killed during the Iran-Iraq war after the Dujail incident. Chief Judge Raouf Abdul-Rahman ordered an investigation into the witness's claim and asked the defence to bring more evidence forward that some remain alive. The prosecution has claimed all the 148 were either executed or tortured to death by the Saddam regime in 1982. In line with its new aggressive tactics, the defence is trying to prove that the whole case is null and void, accusing the prosecution of fabricating evidence. One witness said that Mussawi himself offered bribe money in return for him testifying against Saddam. Mussawi denied the charge, launching counter- accusations of evidence fabrication against the defence. Abdul-Rahman ordered the detention of the four witnesses on suspicion of perjury. The defence also produced a DVD from 2004 showing one prosecution witness praising the Dujail assassination attack as an attempt to "kill the greatest tyrant in modern history". The video supported defence team accusations of perjury against the witness who testified last December that there was no attack on Saddam in 1982, only celebratory gunfire on his visit -- a key claim establishing the unprovoked criminality of the alleged executions the prosecution case is grounded on. In casting doubt on the testimony of one witness, the defence team aims to call to question the reliability of other prosecution witnesses. Saddam and co-defendants claim they acted within the boundaries of their authority to punish those implicated in an assassination attempt on the president. Saddam and co-accused could face capital punishment if the defence fails. The new and robust tactics of the defence are already paying dividends. For the first time since the start of the trial last October, the defence is gaining the upper hand. Judge Abdul-Rahman showed signs of impatience and acted nervously when he ordered the detention of the four defence witnesses on allegations of perjury. When the defence demanded that a prosecution witness be investigated for perjury, Abdul-Rahman did not rule out the request, but did not take any further action despite the fact that the defence team produced video evidence of the perjury. The court was adjourned until next Monday after it heard two witnesses testifying in defence of a lower level co-defendant. The Iraqi government in the past has been plain about its preference for a quick rather than a fair trial, in order to close the Saddam chapter as soon as possible, claiming that delays in the trial were fuelling the insurgency inside Iraq. Recent sessions in court, however, indicate that there may be a longer haul ahead than anticipated. The advantage may well rest with the defence. The longer the trial takes, the less interested the public is in it. And it is especially hard to get ordinary Iraqis to focus on the alleged killings of 148 persons in 1982 at a time when more than 148 are killed every week in post-Saddam Iraq.
