Hussein video released
Updated on 13 June 2005
The tribunal that will try Saddam Hussein has released a new video of the former dictator being interrogated.
On view for the first time in almost a year, Iraq's special tribunal has released footage of Saddam Hussein being questioned about the killings of scores of Shi'ite villagers.
The pictures, released today from the office of the Iraqi Special Tribunal, are said to show the former dictator being questioned by the chief trial judge Raid Juhi.
There is no sound on the tape and it is impossible to know what is being said, but the Tribunal say he was being questioned about the killing of dozens of men from the village of Dujail.
The tape shows a bearded Saddam and four of his officials being questioned by investigating magistrates.
Dujail was the scene of an attempt on the dictator's life in 1982. His retribution was typically brutal. More than a hundred men were killed.
This is not the first time pictures have been released of Saddam Hussein since his capture. Many of the other images have been considerably less dignified, with the Sun newspaper publishing images of him in his underwear last month.
But with the beginning of his trial now expected to start within the next few months, this display has struck international lawyers as being at least imprudent if not illegal.
Human rights lawyer, Rufus D'Cruz told Channel 4 News: "It bodes ill for a future trial if this is the start of the way in which the investigation is conducted. One would hope this is an abberation and this mistake will not be repeated."
In Iraq itself where people have become used to different standards of justice the pictures have been greeted with indifference.
But the real target audience for the footage is undoubtedly Iraqi, and perhaps the reason for its timing.
There has been an upturn in the number of suicide bombings.
Two more today; four people were killed, including a six year old girl. It is in this context that the pictures of Saddam have been released.
Anne Clwyd, the prime minister's human rights envoy to Iraq, told Channel 4 News that Saddam needed to be shown on TV.
"It doesn't surprise me to see Saddam being shown because there is a belief in Iraq that somehow he has cut a deal and will not be standing trial at all so I think it is important that he is seen on television."
This is an Iraqi process, it is important that the Iraqi people see he is still alive and that investigations are continuing. I don't think there is anything wrong with this in the Iraqi process."
Legal adviser Giovanni di Stefano, who is representing Saddam in an American civil court case, confirmed that the footage showed the interrogation of the
former dictator.
But he claimed its contents would be inadmissible because Saddam was without legal assistance.
London-based Mr di Stefano said: "We were aware this interrogation was on video. President Hussein was, however, without the benefit of legal assistance.
"In accordance with Article 20 of the Special Iraqi Tribunal rules, it follows that any content within the interrogations are deemed inadmissible."
The legal adviser, also part of an international team of representatives of Saddam, said he will visit the deposed tyrant in the next two weeks.
"There is jurisdiction in the American civil case and I will visit Saddam to take instructions within 13 days," he said.
"I intend to take an international film crew and international press with me, because it is time this man was heard."
The video showed Saddam wearing a dark-coloured jacket and white open-collared shirt being questioned by a man in the dark robes of a judge.
It was unclear when it was made. Dujail is 50 miles north of Baghdad.
