Saddam refuses to enter plea

Saddam Hussein was formally charged on Monday with murder, torture of women and children, and the illegal arrest of 399 people in a crackdown against Shias in the 1980s, bringing the trial of the ousted iraqi leader into a new phase

Saddam Hussein was formally charged on Monday with murder, torture of women and children, and the illegal arrest of 399 people in a crackdown against Shias in the 1980s, bringing the trial of the ousted iraqi leader into a new phase.

Saddam, who sat alone in the defendants’ pen as the charges were read, refused to enter a plea when Chief judge Raouf Abdel-Rahman asked him if he was guilty or not.

‘‘I can’t just say yes or no. You read all this for the sake of public consumption, and I can’t answer it in brief,’’ Saddam replied. ‘‘This will never shake one hair of my head.’’

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‘‘You are before Saddam Hussein, President of Iraq. I am the President of Iraq according to the will of the Iraqis and I am still the President up to this moment,’’ he said. Abdel-Rahman entered a ‘‘not guilty’’ plea on his behalf.

Saddam and seven former members of his regime have been on trial for nearly seven months over the crackdown against residents of the town of Dujail.

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