‘Good morning, I have questions’

‘‘Saddam said ‘Good morning’ and asked if he could ask some questions. I think they had to do with whether he would have a right to counsel,’’ Salem Chalabi, a lawyer leading the work of a tribunal that will try Saddam, said.

‘‘He was told he should wait until tomorrow,’’ said Chalabi, who was in the courtroom where Saddam and 11 of his former lieutenants were turned over to Iraqi legal custody.

The former dictator, who was not shackled when he appeared before the judge, no longer had the long hair and thick beard that shocked Iraqis when they saw him on television after US troops captured him in December.

Saddam, 67, is accused by Iraqis of torturing and killing hundreds of thousands of people with the help of officials in his Baath Party. His former lieutenants appeared nervous as they were told they would be charged on Thursday.

Ali Hassan Al-Majid, known as ‘‘Chemical Ali’’ for his role in poison gas attacks, including one that killed about 5,000 Iraqi Kurds in Halabja in 1988, appeared especially rattled. ‘‘He looked very scared. He was shaking,’’ said Chalabi.

The fallen leader will be charged with crimes against humanity for a 1988 gas massacre of Kurds, the 1990 invasion of Kuwait and the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war, according to Chalabi.

Kuwait called for Saddam to be sentenced to death over Baghdad’s seven month occupation of the Gulf state.

French lawyer Emmanuel Ludot, one of a 20-strong team appointed by Saddam’s wife to represent him, said the former President would refuse to acknowledge any court or any judge. ‘‘It will be a court of vengeance, a settling of scores,’’ Ludot told France Info radio, saying that any judge sitting in the court would be under pressure to find Saddam guilty.

‘Fair trial for Saddam’

BAGHDAD: Iraq’s President Ghazi Al-Yawar was quoted as saying today that the country would reintroduce the death penalty and the national security adviser said judges trying former president Saddam Hussein could order his execution. Iraq’s National Security Advisor Mowaffaq Al-Rubaie said the former president would get a fair trial and could face the death penalty. ‘‘We promise Iraqis and the world that Saddam will receive a fair hearing,’’ he told BBC Radio. —(Reuters)