A former judge from Saddam Hussein’s regime acknowledged sentencing 148 Shiites to death in the 1980s but insisted that they were given a proper trial and had confessed to trying to assassinate the former Iraqi leader. The question of the Shiites’ prosecution is a key point in the trial of Saddam Hussein and seven former members of his regime. The eight are charged with killing the Shiites, as well as illegal imprisonment and torture of hundreds of others — including women and children — in a crackdown launched against the town of Dujail following a 1982 assassination attempt against Saddam. Full Story