IRAQ: Saddam Hussein's former intelligence chief, Ibrahim Barzan, yesterday insisted that he ordered the release of dozens of prisoners, making his most lively defence yet on charges he was involved in torture and executions in a crackdown against Shias in the 1980s.
Saddam, Ibrahim and two other defendants also told the court they were on hunger strike to protest against the tough stances of chief judge Raouf Abdel-Rahman, who took over the court last month.
The judge has worked to impose order in a proceeding where outbursts and arguments have frequently overshadowed the testimony.
Saddam said he had not eaten in three days, while Ibrahim said he had been on hunger strike for two days.
Their claims could not be independently confirmed. The defendants are being held in US detention, and US officials could not immediately be reached to comment.
One Iraqi judge, who had previously been on the five-judge panel hearing Saddam's case but was later removed, dismissed the claims of a strike, saying he believed the defendants were just showboating.
"This is not true. Saddam and other defendants are trying to use politics again to complicate and derail the trial," Judge Saeed al-Hamashi said.
Ibrahim's statement yesterday was the first time any of the eight defendants in Saddam's turbulent trial has given a lengthy account of their role in the crackdown that followed a 1982 attempt on the former Iraqi leader's life in the Shia town of Dujail.
Saddam and his seven co-defendants are on trial for the killing of nearly 150 Shia Muslims in Dujail. If convicted, they could face the death penalty by hanging.
Since the trial began, Saddam and Ibrahim - the former leader's half-brother and the number two defendant - have only dealt with the court with contempt, interrupting it with outbursts, arguments and insults.
In other developments in Iraq yesterday, masked gunmen shot dead 11 members of the same family, including a five-year-old boy, after rounding up a group of farmers, said police and survivors.
Among the dead was Sheik Hussein Sarhan al-Hiyali, a tribal leader who owned the farm in the Shia town of Balad, some 80km (50 miles) north of Baghdad.
Speaking from a hospital bed where he was recovering from bullet wounds to his arms, 15-year-old Gazwan Hussein, the chieftain's son, said the gunmen rounded up the farmers before killing them.
"When we arrived at the farm at about 8am, we were ambushed by nine gunmen who were covering their faces. They told us to sit down. When my father tried to pull the pistol from the pick-up truck, they opened fire immediately," Mr Hussein said.
He added that the gunmen then fled on the family's truck.
The motive of the killings was not immediately clear, but sectarian violence has become a common element in Iraq's conflict in recent months.
Balad is mostly Shia but it borders several Sunni areas.