SADDAM HUSSEIN, gaunt from a two-week hunger strike but defiant as ever, demanded yesterday that he face a firing squad rather than a hangman’s noose if the Iraqi High Tribunal found him guilty of crimes against humanity.

As the Baghdad court started its closing sessions in the case of 148 Shia men allegedly murdered by the former regime, Saddam, sensing that he could face the death penalty, demanded a soldier’s execution.

“I advise you as an Iraqi, if you were in a circumstance in which you have to issue a death penalty, you have to remember that Saddam is a military man and, in this case, the verdict should be death by shooting, not by hanging,” he told Raouf Abdel Rahman, the Kurdish judge, whose patience with the combative former dictator had appeared to be running out.

Despite appointing himself commander-in-chief of a once-formidable army, Saddam never served in the armed forces nor had military training, having murdered his way to the top of the Baath party. As such, under Iraqi law, he is eligible to be hanged rather than shot.

Saddam appeared somewhat drawn but otherwise healthy after his 16-day hunger strike, which ended last weekend, when US army medics ran a feeding tube through his nose after his condition became unstable. The US military said that the former leader’s life had never been in danger, and Judge Abdel Rahman cited a doctor’s report that indicated that Saddam was fit to appear in the dock. Court officials said that Saddam voluntarily ate a lunch yesterday.

The 69-year-old defendant, holding a Koran and dressed in a dark suit and crisp white shirt, said that he had been dragged into court against his will. The defence team for Saddam and his seven co- defendants boycotted the session. Saddam undertook his hunger strike to protest against the murder of three of his lawyers, blaming their deaths on Shia militias linked to the new Government.

The court has appointed lawyers to defend Saddam and his lieutenants, who are accused of ordering the mass killing in revenge for a failed assassination attempt in 1982. When Saddam rejected his court-appointed counsel, the judge retorted that his own lawyers were “staying abroad in front of the TV screens and inciting violence”. He said: “Those are lawyers? Having millions of dinars? Listen, Saddam Hussein, your lawyers have millions of dinars and are inciting violence.” The defence lawyers are to sum up their case in the next two weeks, after which the court will pronounce judgment. If found guilty, all eight defendants could face the death penalty. Saddam has upbraided the court consistently, and yesterday he was as bullish as ever despite his prospects.

“Even if I don’t eat for ten months, I will have my full power and health,” he ranted. “Did you think Saddam Hussein would not be able to speak after 20 days?” He also reiterated his call to Iraqi guerrillas to attack US forces, an incitement that brought a sharp rebuke from the judge.

“If you are inciting to kill Americans . . . let (your supporters) attack the US bases,” the judge said. “Not the streets, not in public places, not in coffee shops, not in the local market areas. Let them not blow themselves up in these areas. Let them blow up on the Americans . . . Do you call killing [Iraqi] people as resisting Americans?”

That appeared to leave Saddam at a loss, but he said: “I am Saddam, brother of the people. If you want to terrify me, not a thousand ones like you can terrify my finger.” Then he muttered a further denunciation of the court, which he maintains is the illegitimate tool of an occupying force. “This case is not worth the urine of an Iraqi child,” he said.

END OF AN ERA

Caligula Roman Emperor was assassinated by the Praetorian Guard in AD41

Mussolini Il Duce was executed by partisans. Body hung upside down from a hook in Milan

Stalin Guards were too scared to enter his room after he suffered a stroke. Died four days later

Pol Pot Khmer Rouge leader was deposed in 1979. Died, apparently peacefully, in the Cambodian jungle in 1998

Idi Amin exiled; died of a heart attack in 2003

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