Saddam's torture claims dismissed

AN INVESTIGATIVE judge said yesterday that officials never saw evidence that Saddam Hussein was beaten in US custody, contradicting claims by the former Iraqi dictator that he was abused and "the marks are still there".

US officials strongly denied Saddam's allegations as "completely unfounded", but Saddam yesterday stuck to his story, denouncing the American comments as "lies".

When the court gave the former Iraqi leader an opportunity to cross-examine witnesses, Saddam instead used the time to expand on earlier assertions he had been abused in custody. He claimed that the wounds he suffered from the alleged beatings had been documented by at least two American teams.

Saddam claimed that American denials that he was beaten could not be believed, noting that no weapons of mass destruction had been found in Iraq despite Mr Bush's pre-war claims that Saddam was harbouring such weapons.

"The White House lied when it said Iraq had chemical weapons," Saddam said.

"I reported all the wounds I got to three medical committees. We are not lying, the White House is lying."

But Raid al-Juhi, the investigative judge who prepared the case against Saddam and forwarded it to the trial court in July, said that neither the defendants nor their lawyers had ever complained about beatings.

Officials also did not see any signs of beatings, Mr Juhi said. "The defendants receive complete and very good health care by the authorities in charge of the detention. No ordinary Iraqi receives this kind of care," he added.

Saddam and seven others are on trial for the deaths of more than 140 Shiites after a 1982 attempt on Saddam's life in the town of Dujail, north of Baghdad.

The first witness to testify yesterday spoke from behind a curtain and had his voice disguised. He said he was eight during the killings in Dujail. He said his grandmother, father and uncles had been arrested and tortured and he never saw his male relatives again.

Saddam said the court should not depend on the testimony of witnesses who were children at the time of the alleged crime.

At one point, the judge told Saddam's half-brother and co-accused, Barazan Ibrahim, who was head of the Iraqi intelligence services during the Dujail killings, to speed up his answer.

He responded: "Don't oppress me. I passed through this experience in the past. During the interrogation I used to be asked questions that need one hour to answer and they wanted a 'yes' or 'no' answer.

"When I used to answer he used to slap me in the face while my hands were tied from behind."

The presiding judge then adjourned the case until 24 January.