2 Dispute List of Massacre Victims in Court

Some of the 148 massacre victims whose deaths have been blamed by prosecutors on deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and his top aides never died, witnesses told a startled courtroom Tuesday.

At least 23 of the victims allegedly slaughtered by the former Baath Party regime in retribution for an assassination attempt against Hussein in 1982 are living openly in the mainly Shiite town of Dujayl, said anonymous townspeople who testified in the former dictator’s defense.

“I have seen them walking in the street,” said a witness who was identified as a Dujayl native who went on to work in the executions section of Baghdad’s notorious Abu Ghraib prison during Hussein’s regime. “The prosecutor said they were executed, but I have eaten and drunk water with them.”

Hussein has been charged with crimes against humanity for the mass detention, torture and killing of the scores of Dujayl residents, including children. He and seven codefendants are standing trial in the heavily fortified Green Zone; he faces the death penalty if convicted.

The two witnesses, who spoke from behind a floor-length curtain, insisted that many of the people who were thought to have been put to death actually fled to Iran for protection.

But when pressed for names, both witnesses balked, arguing that they would be vulnerable to revenge attacks back in Dujayl if they gave up the names. The judge pressed them to write the identities on a piece of paper, but they only volunteered a few names each -- and then complained that their lives were at risk.

“Now you put a suicide belt around me. I cannot go back to the city now. I cannot be a traitor,” said one of the witnesses. “I will not pick a fight with 40 tribes.”

The townspeople also accused the prosecutor of visiting Dujayl in 2004 to attend a commemorative ceremony on the anniversary of the attempt on Hussein’s life. A high-ranking U.S. military officer also attended, the witnesses said.

While in Dujayl, prosecutor Jaafar Mousawi told the townspeople that Hussein was a “cancer” to Iraq, the witness said. Mousawi told people he was bringing greetings from the Iranian leadership, and offered to provide cash backing and fake documents to those willing to testify against Hussein, the witness said.

Mousawi repeatedly denied attending the gathering. He had never been to Dujayl, he told the judge.

But after defense lawyers held aloft photographs that they said showed Mousawi at the ceremony, Barzan Ibrahim Hasan, Hussein’s half brother and fellow defendant, held his hand aloft in a victorious “V.”

“The truth has been revealed! An injustice defeated!” Hasan shouted. “Long live the people, long live the Baath, long live Iraq!”

Hussein’s lawyers implored the judge to let them show a DVD of the ceremony as evidence, but the judge refused. The DVD was aired on satellite channel Al Arabiya, however.

The footage appeared to show the prosecutor mingling with the crowds at the commemorative event, chatting and looking at posters on the wall that portrayed the would-be assassins as martyrs.

The footage also appeared to show a man who testified for the prosecution earlier in the trial. In the Green Zone courtroom, he had argued that the shots fired at Hussein’s convoy were nothing more than celebratory gunfire.

But in the footage, a man who appeared to be the same one cheered the people of Dujayl for trying to kill Hussein.

“It was a heroic day when they tried to kill one of the biggest tyrants in history,” he said.