Saddam defies judges as bombers kill 40
(Reuters)
Updated: 2005-12-07 06:52

GRIM TESTIMONY

Earlier, the first woman to give evidence, identified only as Witness A, spoke behind a curtain in fear for her life with her voice distorted as a further safeguard; said she had been beaten with cables after Saddam's guards forced her to strip.

She told how she had envied animals their freedom while she was held with hundreds of others rounded up after an attempt on Saddam's life in the Shi'ite village of Dujail in 1982.

"I was forced to take my clothes off. They lifted my legs up, they tied my hands, they beat me with cables and (gave me) electric shocks," she said.

Other witnesses gave rambling accounts of similar abuses and one, challenged to clarify, confessed to being confused himself.

Saddam, who with seven others faces hanging if convicted, sat largely impassively through the testimony after a stormy session on Monday when he argued with judges and upbraided lawyers and witnesses, one of whom said he saw a meat grinder while in custody that he believed was used on human flesh.

But he later thumped his hand on the dock holding him and raged against the "theater" of what he has called a "Made in America" trial and "Zionists" who he said want to kill him.

"I have been sentenced to execution three times. This is not the first time," he said.

Saddam's diehard supporters and others, mostly Sunnis, have waged a bloody campaign against occupying American forces and the Shi'ite-led security forces since his overthrow in 2003.

At the police academy, a first explosion occurred as cadets headed to lunch after shooting practice, said survivor Nizal Mahmoud Khalaf. A second bomber struck as they ran for shelter.

Some hours later, another suicide bomber killed three people and injured at least 20 outside a cafe in Baghdad.