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Handcuffed in His Former Palace, Saddam Defiant

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - He arrived handcuffed and in chains at a courtroom in a complex that was once one of his palaces. But although Saddam Hussein has been overthrown and captured, he had not lost his defiance.

"I am Saddam Hussein, president of Iraq," he told a hearing where he was read seven charges, according to pool reporters in the courtroom at Camp Victory, a sprawling U.S. base that was previously a lavish hunting estate with a man-made lake.

"This is all theater. The real criminal is (U.S. President George W.) Bush," he said.

In television pictures broadcast around the world on Thursday shortly after the proceedings, Saddam looking haggard with a neatly trimmed beard that had mostly turned grey.

He was wearing a dark gray jacket over a white shirt, with no tie. It was the first footage shown of the ousted Iraqi leader since photographs and videotape taken after his capture in December.

Saddam, 67, was shown gesticulating toward the judge, and at times wagging his finger angrily.

He was thinner than when he was captured hiding in a hole near his hometown of Tikrit in December and he had bags under his eyes.

Saddam also declared that the country's occupiers could not strip him of his title of president. The judge told him that, under the Geneva Conventions, they could.

Saddam refused to concede that the invasion of Kuwait in 1990 was a crime, denouncing the Kuwaitis.

"They were trying to turn Iraqi women into prostitutes for just $10," he said. "How could you defend those dogs?"

The judge warned him not to use such language.

Saddam also refused to sign a statement acknowledging that he had been charged and read his rights. The hearing followed the end of his prisoner of war status and his transfer from U.S. to Iraqi legal custody on Wednesday.

Hearing the charge that he ordered the killing of thousands of Kurds in a poison gas attack at Halabja in 1988, Saddam seemed to imply he had nothing to do with it.

"Yes, I heard about that," he said.

Two burly Iraqi guards escorted him into the courthouse. His chains were removed before he reached the courtroom and the handcuffs were taken off inside the room.

The courtroom is close to the palace in the middle of an artificial lake stocked with fish on the southwest fringe of Baghdad. Members of Saddam's inner circle used to go hunting in the grounds, and soldiers say Saddam's playboy son Uday used one of the palace buildings for his assignations.

The small sandstone-colored court building is next to a blue-domed mosque, and was formerly the imam's residence.

It has been used for several courts martial, and for last week's hearing for Specialist Sabrina Harman, one of the seven American soldiers charged with abuse of Iraqi prisoners at the notorious Abu Ghraib jail -- where thousands of Iraqis were imprisoned and tortured under Saddam.

Told by the judge at the hearing that legal counsel would be provided for him if he needed it, Saddam said: "But everyone says, the Americans say, I have millions of dollars stashed away in Geneva. Why shouldn't I afford a lawyer?"

A video grab shows Iraq's deposed dictator Saddam Hussein writing notes while appearing before an Iraqi tribunal in Iraq July 1, 2004. Downcast but defiant, Saddam refused to recognize its authority and said the 'real criminal' was U.S. President George W. Bush.REUTERS/Pool

Defiant Saddam appears in court, scoffs at "theatre", insults Kuwait

BAGHDAD (AFP) - A defiant and unrepentant Saddam Hussein appeared in court to hear a string of charges for which he could face the death penalty, in a landmark moment for the new Iraq.

A visibly tired Saddam defended his August 1990 invasion of Kuwait and refused to sign legal papers after seven charges were read against him, an official of the Iraqi Special Tribunal said.

Insisting he was still president of Iraq during the 30-minute hearing, the ousted dictator, speaking in a hoarse voice, questioned the jurisdiction of the tribunal.

"This is all a theatre. The real villain is Bush," said a thin-looking Saddam, referring to US President George W. Bush.

The 67-year-old former strongman also insulted Kuwait. "How could you defend those dogs?" he asked, only to be rebuked by the judge that "such language is not permitted" in a court of law.

The toppled dictator was transported to the courtroom in an armoured bus flanked by four Humvees and an ambulance after flown there in a helicopter.

Upon arrival, he was led handcuffed and with a chain around his waist into the building by two Iraqi prison guards, while six more guards stood to attention at the door.

The handcuffs and chains were taken off before he stepped into the courtroom. Saddam, who has lost weight since his capture in December but sported a tidier beard, was dressed in a dark outfit.

During the hearing, Saddam looked around and made hand gestures at the judge as charges were read out against him that included the invasion of Kuwait and bloody suppression of an uprising by Iraq's Shiite majority in 1991.

"Kuwait is an Iraqi territory. It was not an invasion," Saddam declared according to a tribunal official who attended the hearing.

Before the hearing ended, Saddam was presented with a document to sign to acknowledge that he understood what was going on, understood the charges and that his rights had been read, but he refused to sign it.

Saddam's defence team, which has not yet been allowed to enter Iraq, on Thursday again slammed as "illegal" the Iraqi Special Tribunal trying the deposed dictator.

"This court is illegal since it was designated by an illegal authority, created by the occupation," one of the lawyers, Jordanian Ziad Khassawneh, said in Amman.

Minutes after Saddam left the courtroom, his former presidential secretary Abed Hamid Mahmud was brought in.

Ten other top members of the former regime were due to follow including former deputy prime minister Tareq Aziz and Saddam's first cousin "Chemical" Ali Hassan al-Majid.

Officials said videotape of the ex-president in court would be carefully checked before they are released to the public.

The faces of those involved, except for Saddam and 11 former aides who are due to appear later in the day, will be obscured to guard against any attacks by supporters of the disgraced despot.

The footage will be the public's first glimpse of Saddam since footage was released of a bearded and dishevelled former strongman after his arrest by American troops.

Justice Minister Malek Dohan al-Hassan said Saddam would be condemned to death if found guilty. The death sentence -- suspended by the US-led coalition -- was restored after Monday's sovereignty handover to an interim government.

Thursday's hearing began what is likely to be a tortuous and protracted process to apportion blame for the numerous atrocities committed in Iraq during Saddam's 24-year reign.

Majid, nicknamed Chemical Ali for the 1988 gassing of the Kurds, and ex-vice president Taha Yassin Ramadan are among Saddam's former chief aides who will also be read their charges on Thursday.

Former defence minister Sultan Hashim Ahmed, who was rumoured to have collaborated with the US military during the invasion in spring 2003, was also named in a tribunal statement on Tuesday.

They have been held under tight security at Camp Cropper, a US military detention centre at Baghdad's former international airport, according to a humanitarian organisation.

They will remain guarded by multinational forces who fear a jailbreak if they are handed over to Iraqi custody.