Iraqis have been waiting for many years to bring the unjust, criminal, tyrant and Ex-Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein Al-Tkiriti to an end. Now finally, with Saddam on trial facing charges that include murder and torture, Iraqis who have faced miserable hardships during his rule, wait eagerly for the tyrant to receive his punishment.

Saddam’s first trial began on Wednesday 19 October of the current year 2005, taking place in the heavily secured green zone in Baghdad where Saddam Hussein and his co-defendants were led into the centre of the courtroom, he also appeared in court on 28 November, 5, 6 and 7 December, the next court hearing is to be held on 21 December. Below is a time line of the trials held so far.

October 19, 2005
Saddam Hussein defiantly ignored the authority of the judge refusing to confirm his identity, questioning him “Who are you? I conserve my constitutional rights as the president of Iraq. I do not recognise the body that has authorised you”.

Those in the courts presence included Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti (Saddams half brother and former intelligence chief); Taha Yassin Ramadan (former Vice-President); Awad Hamed al-Bandar (former chief judge); and Abdullah Kadhem Ruaid, Ali Daeem Ali, Mohammed Azawi Ali and Mizher Abdullah Rawed (Dujail Baath party officials). After three hours the trial was suspended until 28th of November, due to the lack of witnesses at the time.

November 28, 2005
On 28 November the trial brought up its first witness Waddah Al-Sheikh who asserted that 148 people, mostly men, were killed in the Shia town of Dujail, after a failed assassination attempt against the former leader in 1982. Hundreds had been detained after the ambush with an estimate of 7 to 12 heads that may have been responsible. The witness said: "They rounded up 400 people from the town - women, children and old men.” While “Saddam's personal bodyguards took part in killing people, Barzan Ibrahim Al-Tikriti was the one directly giving the orders”

Mr. Al-Sheikh also declared that “after the attack, families were rounded up and taken to Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad” and “A year later they were moved to another detention centre in the south of the country” Mr Al-Sheikh also gave us another piece of vital evidence where he reported that Saddam's former Vice-President Taha Yassin Ramadan had ordered the destruction of orchards in the area for the gunmen to hide in.

Saddam Hussein and his seven accomplices who attended court all defiantly denied the charges made.
In a series of heated exchanges with the judge Saddam also complained about not being able to sign the court papers because his guards had taken his pen away. Judge Amin in an attempt to silence him, informed him briskly that he would inform them of the problem whereupon Saddam Hussein fired back: "I don't want you to alert them! I want you to order them. They are in our country. You are an Iraqi, they are foreigners, trespassers, and occupants." The court was adjourned till 5 December as four defence lawyers had failed to turn up.

December 5, 2005
Ahmed Hassan Mohammed they key witness in the trial on 5 December gave a heart-rending account of torture at the hands of the Iraqi security services, he described to court how women, children and elderly were tortured saying that on most occasions where babies were killed they were left just abandoned in the way. The witness spoke of the various torture techniques used including a mincing machine where human bodies where fed through it before the eyes of other prisoners. Mr. Mohammed told the court about how he had witnessed one of his friends being killed before his eyes. He said: “They broke him. They broke his arms, his legs and they shot at his feet”.

December 6, 2005
The next day on 6 December three witnesses, were called up, 2 women and a man. All the witnesses were allowed to remain anonymous while giving evidence behind a curtain and having their voices disguised. The first woman to be called up informed the court of how she had been sexually abused at the age of 16, guards had told her to undress they had then beaten her, and tortured her using electric shocks. She also spoke of a relative, an elderly man who was humiliated in front of women and children, while being dragged around by his intimate area. She was put in Abu Ghraib for four years, for what crime? The ultimate disappointment however, is that where all of this is taking place under the dogmatic rule of the vicious tyrant Saddam, with his knowledge, there are no direct and at hand evidences that can link him directly to the humiliation and suffering these people have had to face.

The second witness, and elderly women spoke of how she had been taken to prison along with her husband and seven children (two sons and five daughters), describing her pain, and having to endure severe days and months in a cell, and upon what crime? Merely due to the fact that she belonged to the shia area of Dujail? The third and final witness of that court trial, who spoke of how he had been taken to prison by the secret police, along with his father and two child sisters, he told court how he had spent 11 months at the disreputable prison of Abu Ghraib, where his father had passed away while being beaten on the head, to death.

The third witness spoke of how men were humiliated in front of their family members, he stated: “men were brought in front of the women and children and they were forced to bark like dogs” while the prison guards would stand by, watching and laughing hysterically. The sympathy of the tyrant leader, could not even be achieved here, while the witnesses sobbed, and gave their heart breaking accounts, instead while the third witness was speaking he rudely interrupted him by questioning him “how do you remember all this”, evidently getting to the point that to have such a vivid and clear idea of things can only mean that they were invented. But as the witness so replied “It is hard to forget sadness” and true that is.

The turn of events took place when Saddam began asking the witnesses "but does anyone ask Saddam Hussein whether he was tortured? whether he was hit?" telling them "Its your duty to investigate the crime at its scene" and "I live in an iron cage covered by a tent under American Democratic rule. You are supposed to come and see my cage". The trial took a heated end where Saddam began to outrageously and rudely make remarks saying that America wanted to see him executed, he walked out of court shouting that he would not make an appearance again, stating how “unjust” the court was while telling those at court to “Go to hell!!” when the judge had overruled the defendants lawyers request of taking a break, by demanding that another hearing was to take place the next day with the presence of two new witnesses.

December 7, 2005
There was no show for Saddam the next day on 7 December, Saddam had kept to his word in refusing to attend the trial, asking for his condition to be looked into, and the demeanour of the court, (the same place which had freely allowed him to voice his rude and snide remarks). The other, seven co-accused were in court, and the court was resumed after four hours delay, the two male witnesses were brought up, both requesting to remain anonymous and speaking from behind a curtain once again. One witness had spoken of how he was sent to prison for four and a half years, in the round up of the people in Dujail. He had been told that he was only wanted for 10 minutes, and those 10 minutes, hauled on for another four and a half years.