More details / witness/ Saddam outburst

The first female witness in the trial of Saddam Hussein today described the torture and sexual assaults she says she suffered at the hands of Iraqi intelligence officers in the early 1980s.

Hidden behind a screen, her voice disguised, the woman recounted how she was arrested in a raid on the town of Dujail after an attempt on the life of Saddam in 1982.

The fallen dictator and seven former lieutenants are on trial for killing 148 people in Dujail after his motorcade was attacked in the town. All eight plead not guilty and face the death penalty if convicted.

"I was beaten up and tortured by electrical shocks," said the woman, identified only as "Witness A", whose voice was electronically distorted to such an extent that Chief Judge Rizgar Mohammed Amin ordered a brief recess to have the equipment fixed.

"I begged them, but they hit with their pistols," said the woman, who was 16 when she was arrested. "They made me put my legs up. There were five or more, and they treated me like a banquet. Is that what happens to the virtuous woman that Saddam speaks about?"

The woman declined to say whether she had been raped, but strongly hinted that she had been, breaking down in tears to repeat: "God is great. Oh, my Lord."

When asked by the judge which of the defendants she wanted to accuse, the woman identified Saddam: "When so many people are jailed and tortured, who takes such a decision?" she asked.

The woman's testimony was interrupted several times by problems with the voice distortion equipment. But in contrast to yesterday's chaotic hearings, Saddam and his fellow defendants remained quiet, taking notes and listening intently.

Saddam's defence team insisted on questioning the woman face to face and displaying her identity to the eight men on trial. Judge Amin acceded and ordered the cross examination closed to the public. Screens were pulled in front of the press and visitors gallery and the sound was cut.

Later a second woman, "Witness B", who said she was 74, took the stand to describe her experience of four years of captivity under Saddam's regime. She said she was arrested with her family in Dujail in 1981, the year before the massace, and held first in the town and then at Abu Ghraib prison.

In Dujail, the predominantly Shia town north of Baghdad where the assassination of Saddam was planned, the woman said: "I could not even eat because of the torture". At Abu Ghraib, the woman said one of her relatives had given birth in her cell. "The baby was out. When some women tried to help her, the guards prevented them," she said. Later, the baby died, the witness told the court.

During the afternoon, a third witness, a man identified only as "Witness C", told the court that he had been arrested by Saddam's security forces with his father, who had died after being beaten in custody.

"In prison they used to bring men to the women’s room and ask them to bark like dogs," he said. "My father died in prison and I was not able to see him."

The man's testimony prompted Saddam's most notable outburst of the day. The former dictator told Judge Amin that the court had a duty to investigate the conditions of his own imprisonment.

"I live in an iron cage covered by a tent under American democratic rule. You are supposed to come see my cage," Saddam told the court. Later, he threatened not to attend his trial tomorrow, "I will not return, I will not come to an unjust court! Go to Hell!" he shouted.

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