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Saddam pleads innocent, gets into scuffle
(AP)
Updated: 2005-10-20 19:35
The trial was broadcast on satellite stations with a 20-minute delay. But
technical quality was poor, with the sound cutting out frequently and the
picture going blank several times. Reporters at the courtroom struggled to
follow the proceedings from behind a bulletproof glass partition.
The Iraqi government did not explain the 20-minute delay, but one effect
could have been to cut out scenes like the scuffle, which did not appear on
tape.
"My father is brave, a lion, I am proud of him," said one of Saddam's
daughters, Raghad Saddam Hussein.
"He is a man who dedicated his life to serve his country, he was brave in his
youth, so how can he be afraid now?" she told the Dubai-based Arabiyah satellite
channel from Jordan.
Reaction to Saddam's trial varied in Iraq, where his loyalists, together with
hardcore members of his Baath party and feared security services are an
important faction of a Sunni-led insurgency wracking Iraq for the past 2 1/2
years.
In Baghdad, Shiite construction worker Salman Zaboun
Shanan sat with his family at home in the Shiite neighborhood of Kazimiyah,
having taken the day off from work to watch the trial.
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