Saddam trial hears evidence of torture

A witness told the court that Saddam's guards applied electric shocks to detainees at the headquarters of his feared intelligence service in Baghdad, and heated up plastic tubing and allowed the hot plastic to drip onto the bodies of victims.

"They would be in such pain as the plastic solidified on their bodies," the witness recalled. "A man would leave on his feet and come back thrown in a blanket."

Saddam and seven co-defendants, including his former intelligence chief Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti, are standing trial in connection with the killing of 148 people from the mainly Shia village of Dujail, north of Baghdad, in the 1980s.

Prosecuters say Saddam ordered the killings in reprisal for a failed bid to assassinate him in the village in 1982.

Previous witnesses have given sometimes rambling and imprecise accounts of hardships they suffered under Saddam but the latest, Ali Hassan al-Haidari, spoke calmly and coherently and made a specific allegation against Barzan.

He said Saddam's half-brother Barzan had been present in the building where the torture took place and had kicked him once as Haidari lay in a hallway suffering from a fever.

"He said to the guards 'Do not treat him, this family does not deserve to live," Haidari said. "I was in pain for weeks because of that kick."

Barzan lost his temper several times. During six trial hearings he has emerged as the most outspoken defendant, eclipsing even Saddam, who seemed subdued on Wednesday.