BAGHDAD, May 24: A woman marked Saddam Hussein’s car with the blood of a slaughtered sheep to guide gunmen who opened fire on his convoy in an assassination attempt in 1982, a court heard on Wednesday.
Former Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz also took the stand for Saddam in his first public appearance in three years and said the court should try today’s Iraqi leaders for attacks against the state in the 1980s.
Tareq Aziz, the highest-profile witness for Saddam, was once the international public face of the toppled leader’s government and one of his closest aides.
Saddam’s former personal secretary, Abed Hamid, took the stand for the toppled leader in an attempt to justify a crackdown that led to the execution of 148 men and teenagers after the attack in the town of Dujail. Abed Hamid, once one of Saddam’s most feared aides, told the court how the plot to kill Saddam unfolded as residents in the town north of Baghdad slaughtered sheep in a traditional sign of welcoming.
Mr Hamid’s suspicions were aroused when the woman touched the former president’s car with blood from the sheep on her hand, fearing she was marking it for an ambush.
“I ordered the cars to be switched without the knowledge of the president,” he said, adding that five cars in Saddam’s convoy took fire, including the one with the blood stain.
The court was later adjourned to May 29.
SADDAM OUTBURSTS: Mr Hamid’s account of the Dujail attack was followed by more outbursts from Saddam, who still calls himself the president of Iraq and who faces possible death by hanging.
Saddam stared down chief judge Raouf Abdel Rahman, a member of the Kurdish ethnic community, and said: “You elected me.”
Standing in a dark suit, Saddam contrasted with the image of him in a military uniform as he personally interrogated terrified Dujail residents after the attempt on his life and told his forces to take them away for more questioning.
Mr Hamid, described by Iraqis as one of Saddam’s most powerful enforcers, explained how he, Saddam and other officials escaped death in Dujail.
While their convoy headed back to helicopters they came under heavy fire from gunmen hiding in an orchard who killed three soldiers. Saddam’s men discovered a cache of heavy machineguns and rocket-propelled grenades in the area, Mr Hamid said.
Like Saddam’s co-accused, Mr Hamid linked Iran to the plot carried out by the Dawa party of Nuri al-Maliki, the current prime minister.—Reuters