Like most sessions of the trial so far, yesterday's had its share of drama. The defense team threatened to walk out and a prosecutor tried to resign, saying he had been insulted by defendant Barazan Ibrahim, the head of the Iraqi intelligence services in 1982.
A day earlier, Hussein told the court he had been beaten ''everywhere" on his body, insisting ''the marks are still there." He did not display any marks, but said it took some wounds eight months to heal.
Yesterday, Hussein said American denials that he was beaten could not be believed, noting that no weapons of mass destruction had been found in Iraq despite President Bush's prewar claims that Hussein was harboring such weapons.
''The White House lied when it said Iraq had chemical weapons," Hussein said. ''I reported all the wounds I got to three medical committees. . . . We are not lying; the White House is lying."
But Juhi, who prepared the case against Hussein, said that neither the defendants nor their lawyers had ever complained about beatings. Officials also never saw signs of beatings, he said.
The court heard from six witnesses over the two days, including one yesterday who testified from behind the cover of a curtain, describing the scene at a desert camp where some of the Dujail families were held.
''It was a situation beyond description," he said. ''Women were crying. Children were crying." Witnesses have the option of not having their identities revealed to protect them against possible reprisals by Hussein loyalists.
Another witness said six of his brothers had been executed and a seventh was killed in Dujail. A third said that his father, uncles, and grandmother were taken away by security officials and tortured, and that all but his grandmother were never seen again.
