Saddam Hussein, declaring he was not afraid to die, denounced his trial as a public relations exercise today after a witness told the court of horrors committed during the former Iraqi dictator's rule.
Saddam's defence team earlier challenged the legitimacy of the US-backed trial and briefly walked out. "I am not afraid of execution," Saddam said, adding: "Execution is cheaper than the shoe of an Iraqi".
Saddam during his trial for crimes against humanity
The ousted leader, on trial for crimes against humanity along with seven former aides and Baathist officials, told the court: "The purpose of this trial is public opinion".
He was replying to the testimony of Ahmed Hassan (38) who told the court how he and his family were seized and tortured after a 1982 attempt on Saddam's life in the town of Dujail.
Hassan, who risked reprisals by letting his face appear on television as he gave evidence, said they were taken to an intelligence building in Baghdad run by Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti, Saddam's half-brother and former intelligence chief.
After chaotic procedural wrangling, during which former US attorney-general Ramsey Clark led a defence walkout over threats to the lawyers and a challenge to the legitimacy of the court, Hassan's testimony brought the charges chillingly to life.
"I swear by God, I walked by a room and ... saw a grinder with blood coming out of it and human hair underneath," Hassan told the court.
During the testimony, Barzan, sitting behind Saddam in the dock, interrupted Hassan, shouting: "It's a lie!"
"My brother was given electric shocks while my 77-year-old father watched," Hassan said.
"One man was shot in the leg ... Some were crippled because they had arms and legs broken."
Saddam and his co-defendants are charged with the deaths of 148 men from the Shia village of Dujail after the attempt on his life. Other trials over the oppression of Shias and Kurds by Saddam's minority Sunni Arab regime are expected to follow.
Hassan is the first witness to take the stand in the trial, which began on October 19th but has been adjourned twice, first for 40 days to allow the defence more time to prepare and again last week to let two of the defendants find new attorneys following the killing of a second defence lawyer last month.
In his testimony, Hassan described seeing Barzan in Dujail on the day of the attack in July 1982, wearing red cowboy boots and blue jeans, and carrying a sniper rifle. He said Saddam was there as well.
Towards the end of the more than six-hour session, the defence lawyers accused the prosecution of coaching the witness. "He should act in the cinema," Barzan yelled at Hassan.
As he listened to the testimony, Saddam chuckled and half smiled to himself.
Later, his chief lawyer, Khalil Dulaimi, argued with the witness and accused him of lying, saying he'd implicated a former government minister who had died in 1979.
As the bespectacled Shia prosecutor was asking questions at one point, Saddam lashed out at him, shouting: "Hey, you in the glasses, don't you recognise your leader of 30 years?"
Hassan is the first of up to 11 witnesses due to testify in the coming days.
At least eight of those will be either hidden behind a screen or will not appear on camera to protect their identities, officials familiar with the court have said.
The witness's appearance in court, and his sometimes gruesome testimony, followed a near-farcical few hours when Saddam's defence team first stormed out of the court and then returned 90 minutes later to challenge its legitimacy.
During the walkout, Saddam shouted that the court was "Made in America" and then: "Long live Iraq!" Behind him, Barzan chorused: "Long live Saddam." He added: "Why don't you just execute us and get this over with?"
The trial was adjourned until Wednesday.