IRAQ: Saddam Hussein said yesterday he was not afraid to die, after witnesses at his trial described the horrors of his rule, including use of a human meat grinder.
"You cannot continue playing these games," said Iraq's former dictator, who had repeatedly interrupted witnesses and the judge. "If you want my neck you can have it." Saddam yelled at one of two witnesses who testified: "Don't interrupt me, you boy".
The chief judge eventually adjourned the trial until tomorrow after a highly charged session in which two men became the first witnesses to face Saddam in court.
Ahmed Hassan ( 38) told how he and his family were seized and tortured after a 1982 attempt on Saddam's life in the Shia Muslim town of Dujail.
Mr 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.
Tikriti, one of eight men charged with crimes against humanity, yelled at Mr Hassan: "He should act in the cinema."
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, Mr Hassan 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," he told the court. During the testimony, Barzan, sitting behind Saddam in the dock, interrupted him, shouting: "It's a lie!"
Mr Hassan continued: "My brother was given electric shocks while my 77-year-old father watched . . . 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 killing 148 men from Dujail after the assassination attempt. Other trials are expected to follow.
In his testimony, Mr 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 and related an episode involving a boy of 15.
"Saddam said to him, 'Do you know who I am?' " When the boy answered "Saddam", the president picked up an ashtray and hit him on the head.
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, Saddam's temper flared. "Hey, you in the glasses, don't you recognise your leader of 30 years?" he shouted.
The second witness, Juwaad al- Juwaad, said his 16-year-old brother was detained and executed after the assassination attempt in Dujail.
Mr Dulaimi asked how he could possibly identify anybody when he was aged only 10 at the time. Tikriti stood up and yelled across the courtroom and then hit guards with his notebook as they tried to subdue him.
Up to nine more witnesses are due to testify in the coming days.
Hassan's 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.
The walkout was lead by Mr Clark, a veteran defender of unpopular high-profile causes, and was joined by Najeeb al-Nauimi, a former justice minister of Qatar.
As they stormed out, 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?"