Handwriting experts confirmed former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein's signatures were on two key documents in his trial -- one approving death sentences for 148 Shiites, the other ordering confiscation of farmlands during a crackdown in the 1980s, the judge said on Wednesday.
Dressed in his black suit, Saddam was unusually silent throughout the three-hour session. But his half-brother and co-defendant Barzan Ibrahim angrily rejected the experts' report as biased.
Defense lawyers demanded a neutral, international panel of experts be formed to look at numerous documents presented by the prosecution that were allegedly signed by Saddam or the other seven defendants.
Saddam and the former officials from his regime are on trial for the deaths of the 148 Shiites and the imprisonment of hundreds of others in a crackdown launched following an assassination attempt against Saddam in the mainly Shiite town of Dujail in 1982.
Prosecutors have aimed to use the documents to show Saddam, Ibrahim and the others were closely involved in the crackdown against Dujail's residents.
The former Iraqi leader has refused to confirm or deny the signatures are his -- and Ibrahim and some other defendants outright called the documents forgeries. Saddam and Ibrahim refused to give handwriting samples, so the team of experts relied on comparisons with other documents signed by the men unrelated to the Dujail case.
In Wednesday's session, chief judge Raouf Abdel-Rahman read the report from the experts saying that the signatures on two memos, dated Oct. 10, 1982 and June 16, 1984, "matched the signatures of Saddam Hussein."
The 1984 memo approves the death sentences against the 148, issued by Saddam's Revolutionary Court two days earlier. The 1982 document orders that farmlands that were taken from Dujail families in retaliation for the assassination attempt be handed over to the Agriculture Ministry.
Abdel-Rahman adjourned the trial until April 24 to allow experts to look at more documents.
On Monday, the experts said they had authenticated Saddam's signature on a 1982 memo approving rewards for six intelligence agents involved in the crackdown. They also said signatures on other documents were those of Ibrahim, the former head of the Mukhabarat intelligence agency.
The authentications may verify Saddam signed off on the executions and confiscations, but on their own they're far from sealing the case against him.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
‘POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE’: Leo Varadkar said he was ‘no longer the best person’ to lead the nation and was stepping down for political, as well as personal, reasons Leo Varadkar on Wednesday announced that he was stepping down as Ireland’s prime minister and leader of the Fine Gael party in the governing coalition, citing “personal and political” reasons. Pundits called the surprise move, just 10 weeks before Ireland holds European Parliament and local elections, a “political earthquake.” A general election has to be held within a year. Irish Deputy Prime Minister Micheal Martin, leader of Fianna Fail, the main coalition partner, said Varadkar’s announcement was “unexpected,” but added that he expected the government to run its full term. An emotional Varadkar, who is in his second stint as prime minister and at
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia