Video Saddam Hussein in court, says on hunger strike, turbulent scenes

SHOTLIST

++PLEASE NOTE, AP TELEVISION NEWS DOES NOT HAVE CONTROL OF THE LIVE POOL FEED BEING DELIVERED FROM BAGHDAD, WHICH OPERATES WITH A 20 MINUTE DELAY.

THIS PACKAGE HAS BEEN EDITED FROM THAT LIVE SIGNAL.++

1. Chief judge Raouf Abdel-Rahman

2. UPSOUND (Arabic) Former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein shouting: "God is great, God is great, long live our people and our mighty nation. Long live the mujahedeen."

3. Abdel-Rahman

4. UPSOUND (Arabic) Former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein: "We have been holding a hunger strike for three days in protest against how we have been treated by you and your masters (referring to US)."

5. Judge

6. Saddam

7. Co-defendant Barzan Ibrahim entering court chanting: "Long live, long live Iraq... long live the people of Iraq, long live the mighty, I will sacrifice my father and mother for the sake of Iraq and the mighty Baath (party)."

8. Saddam

9. UPSOUND (Arabic) Chief judge Abdel-Rahman talking and banging gavel "Listen, listen, you are a suspect, you are not allowed to talk - only when you are asked."

Saddam Hussein replies: "You can bang your head with that gavel."

10. Ibrahim stands as witness enters

11. Court officials standing

12. Witness, former intelligence official, behind curtain

13. Court official listening to witness testimony

14. Mid shot of defendants

15. Wide shot of defendants

16. Various of document dated July 21, 1982 - 12 days after the assassination attempt - in which the Mukhabarat, the intelligence agency headed by Barzan, purportedly recommended rewards for six officials for their role in the arrests

17. Chief judge Abdel-Rahman

18. UPSOUND (Arabic) Barzan Ibrahim, Co-defendant:

(Part underlaid with cutaway of court official)

"I released all the people present in the hall, more than 80 persons and, I swear to God, I shook their hands one by one and I asked their pardon and after that I never went back to the Dujail or heard about it again. Nobody since then has mentioned Dujail to me all or seen any report about it. Everything was handed to the prosecutor. I would like to make some thing clear; based on what I've heard from the witnesses and the procedures of this court I have the strong belief that those testifying against me were in fact pushed or encouraged to do so."

19. Wide shot of defendants

20. Judge conferring

21. Saddam listening as chief judge Abdel-Rahman brings session to an end

STORYLINE:

Saddam Hussein's former intelligence chief, Barzan Ibrahim al Tikriti, insisted on Tuesday that he ordered the release of dozens of prisoners in Dujail.

It was Barzan's most lively defence yet on charges he was involved in torture and executions in a crackdown against Shiites following an alleged attempt on Saddam Hussein's life in the 1980s.

Saddam, Barzan and two other defendants also told the court they were on hunger strike to protest the tough stances of chief judge Raouf Abdel-Rahman.

Abdel-Rahman took over the court last month and has worked to impose order in a court where outbursts and arguments have frequently overshadowed the testimony.

Saddam said he hadn't eaten in three days, while Ibrahim said he'd been on strike for two days.

Their claims of a hunger strike could not be independently confirmed.

The defendants are being held in US detention, and US officials could not immediately be reached to comment.

The prosecution continued its attempts to prove Saddam and his seven co-defendants were directly involved in a wave of arrests and executions that followed a 1982 alleged assassination attempt against the then Iraqi leader in the Shiite village of Dujail.

It put three former members of Saddam's regime on the witness stand in three hours of testimony, before Abdel-Rahman adjourned the proceedings until February 28.




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