AFP
BAGHDAD, July 26: Deposed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein demanded in court on Wednesday that he be shot by firing squad rather than hanged if he is found guilty of crimes against humanity.
"Remember that Saddam was a soldier and that therefore, if he is condemned to death, he should be shot and not hanged," he declared, speaking of himself in the third person during his trial in Baghdad.
Judge Rauf Abdel Rahman replied simply that the Iraqi High Tribunal had not yet delivered its verdict.
Saddam never served in the Iraqi armed forces before coming to power as president in 1979, although he gave himself the honorary rank of field marshal and often wore a military uniform.
Now, having been deposed in April 2003 by a US-led invasion, he faces the death penalty if found guilty of ordering the deaths of 148 civilians in the town of Dujail following an attempt on his life.