Saddam calls tribunal a ‘comedy'

Saddam took the stand wearing his trademark well-tailored dark suit without a tie, following a long rambling testimony by his half brother Barzan al-Tikriti.

"It is a comedy against Saddam Hussein and his comrades," he told the judge as he took the stand.

"Oh mighty people, I am still your faithful son, oh Iraqi people... I am still your sword, and despite what has happened to my people, to me, to my comrades because of the criminal occupants, I shall be patient," he said.

The chief judge Rauf Abdel Rahman told Saddam to stick to the case and not make a political speech.

Earlier Saddam Hussein's half brother, Barzan al-Tikriti, Wednesday denied involvement in mass reprisals ordered against a village after the ousted Iraqi leader escaped assassination there in 1982. "I arrested no one, it was the security services that were in charge" of operations in Dujail, Barzan said as the trial of Saddam and seven co-accused resumed before the Iraqi High Tribunal.

"I can assure you I have no responsibility in this matter. It was handled by the former head of security who has since died. Just show me one document proving that I ordered an arrest or the destruction of someone's farm," he said.