Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was attacked by an unidentified man during his appearance at a court hearing in Baghdad Friday, his defense team said Saturday. The team, which operates through an office in the Jordanian capital Amman, said in a statement, cited by reuters, that the man attacked Saddam and the two exchanged blows during a hearing attended by defense lawyer Khalil Dulaimi.
"As the president stood to leave the courtroom one of those present attacked him and there was an exchange of blows between the man and the president," the statement said.
The head of the tribunal did nothing to stop the assault, the statement alleged.
The Iraqi Special Tribunal trying Saddam released images Friday of the ousted leader being questioned on the suppression of Kurdish and Shiite uprisings in 1991. Saddam answered questions at a 45-minute hearing, said Raid Juhi, the Iraqi Special Tribunal's chief investigative judge.
Juhi said he thinks he is close to concluding the criminal probe into Saddam's crackdown against Shiites in southern Iraq, as well as his campaign during the late 1980s to force Iraqi Kurds from wide areas of the north.
