WRAP Saddam's half-brother Barzan Ibrahim testifies at trial
(15 Mar 2006)
1. Wide of former Iraqi intelligence chief Barzan Ibrahim's defence team including former US attorney general Ramsey Clarke
2. Wide of prosecution team
3. Wide of chief judge, Raouf Abdel-Rahman as Barzan is called into court
4. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Barzan Ibrahim, former intelligence chief:
"I sat in the corridor and said to them: "set them free". They set them free, opened the two doors wide. They left. I shook hands with them one after the other."
5. Various close-ups of document
6. Wide of Barzan in dock
7. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Barzan Ibrahim, former intelligence chief: (Part overlaid with shots of chief judge, Raouf Abdel-Rahman)
"I do not regard this document to be genuine."
(UPSOUND (Arabic) Judge: "What?")
"I don't regard it as genuine. But suppose that it is, is it logic that this huge thing..." (interrupted by judge)
(UPSOUND (Arabic) Judge: "No, we are talking about the signature. You said it isn't yours. Are you sure?")
"My signature is very easy to forge."
(UPSOUND (Arabic) Judge:
"Do you mean that this (signature) is forged?")
"Yes, it is forged."
8. Mid shot of judge
9. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Barzan Ibrahim, former intelligence chief: (Part overlaid with shots of chief judge and prosecution team)
"As for the operation which it was said that Iraq is behind, to assassinate the former president George Bush. The investigation was not finished, no trial was held, not even (waiting for) days until the matter is clear, Iraq was bombed with missiles. Buildings, institutions and homes were destroyed and many innocent civilians were killed."
10. Mid shot of Ramsey Clark
11. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Barzan Ibrahim, former intelligence chief:
"All this time, for three years, I have tasted all kinds of psychological and physical torture. In the end, the investigation with me on this issue, took only four hours."
12. Wide of Barzan and prosecution team
STORYLINE:
Saddam Hussein's half-brother, former intelligence chief Barzan Ibrahim, denied he took part in crackdown against Shiites in the 1980s as he testified on Wednesday for the first time in the trial of the former Iraqi leader and members of his regime.
Ibrahim, wearing a traditional red Arab headdress, was questioned for more than three hours by the chief judge and prosecutor, who presented him with half a dozen documents and memos from the Mukhabarat intelligence agency at the time about the crackdown.
One after another, Ibrahim insisted that the documents were fake and that his signatures on them were forged.
After Ibrahim's testimony, chief judge Raouf Abdel-Rahman ordered a half-hour break. Saddam was expected to testify after the break.
The former Iraqi leader and his regime officials are charged with killing 148 Shiites, illegal imprisonment and torture in a crackdown launched after an assassination attempt against Saddam in the Shiite village of Dujail in 1982. They face possible execution by hanging if convicted.
In previous sessions, Dujail residents have testified that Ibrahim personally participating in torturing them during their imprisonment at the Baghdad headquarters of the Mukhabarat intelligence agency, which Ibrahim headed.
One woman claimed Ibrahim kicked her in the chest while she was hung upside down and naked by her interrogators.
But Ibrahim insisted the Mukhabarat agency was not involved in the investigation that followed the July 8, 1982, shooting attack on Saddam's motorcade in Dujail and denied any personal role.
Ibrahim insisted that the General Security agency, not the Mukhabarat, carried out the Dujail crackdown.
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