Ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein said today he would rather be shot than hanged if he is convicted in his trial for crimes against humanity.
"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 the judge.
Iraqi former President Saddam Hussein looks on during final arguments of his trial in the heavily fortified Green Zone on July 26, 2006 in Baghdad, Iraq. Photograph: Getty
Saddam, who has been receiving treatment for his hunger strike, also said he was brought to court against his will.
The defence team for the former leader and seven co-accused boycotted the latest session in a controversial trial which is approaching its conclusion.
"It was not my choice to come to court," Saddam, wearing a dark suit and holding a Koran, told the judge.
"I wrote you a petition clarifying that I don't want to come to court, but they brought me against my will ... I have been on a hunger strike since July 8th."
Saddam (69) had been being fed through a tube in a hunger strike to protest against what he sees as an unfair trial. The hunger strike did not take the edge off his trademark defiance, which has been exhibited in tirades throughout the trial in a courthouse in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone, home to some of his former palaces.
Although his once imposing voice was weak and despite losing some weight, the former Iraqi leader behaved angrily at times.
"Even if I don't eat for 10 months, I will have my full power and health," he said. "Did you think Saddam Hussein would not be able to speak after 20 days?" Saddam and his co-defendants are charged with the killing of 148 Shia men and teenagers after an attempt on his life in the town of Dujail in 1982.
His hunger strike and the boycott staged by his lawyers have further tarnished a trial that has witnessed the killing of three defence lawyers and the resignation of the first chief judge to protest what he said was government interference.
"Half my lawyers were killed. Is it too much for you to protect them?," Saddam asked chief judge Raouf Abdel Rahman. When the ousted president's court-appointed lawyer was about to read his closing argument, Saddam interrupted him: "The argument was written by a Canadian American agent."
Saddam's lawyers have accused the US military of force feeding him to end the strike. "In hospital they were feeding me through my nose to my stomach," said Saddam. Three other defendants are also staging a hunger strike.