Saddam allegedly told Ramsay Clarke, 78, a former US Attorney-General who is one of the lawyers representing him: “I came out of the house where I was hiding by this hole. I went through the trapdoor. I went down the hole, through the tunnel, then lost consciousness.”

Mr Clarke told The Sun: “Saddam thinks he was gassed in the tunnel. He told us he spent maybe minutes in this tunnel, not hours or days.

“When he started to get out there were soldiers around that area. There was supposed to be a motorcycle there. It was gone. Saddam knew the person who owned the house wasn’t there. He knew he had been betrayed.Probably American soldiers did not discover the hole. They were told about it.”

Saddam told his lawyer that he had hoped to emerge unnoticed in nearby bushes and then escape on the motorcycle. “I believe I was betrayed. I have been set up,” he added.

He is not paying his legal team. Mr Clarke said: “Saddam doesn’t have any money and even if he did I wouldn’t accept it.” He added that Saddam told him: “I don’t mind being killed. There will always be another Saddam.”

View of the place where Saddam Hussein was captured during a raid by U.S. soldiers from the 4th Infantry Division Saturday, Dec. 13, 2003 in the town of Ad Dwara, just outside Tikrit(north of Baghdad).

Saddam claims beaten by Americans
-Wednesday, December 21, 2005

Saddam Hussein accused his American captors of torturing him, claiming at his trial today that he had been beaten “everywhere on my body.” A Shiite witness testified that the former Iraqi leader’s agents had tortured people by ripping off their skin. The trial’s chief prosecutor said that if American-led multi-national forces had abused Saddam, he would be transferred into the custody of Iraqi troops. The prosecutor, Jaafar al-Mousawi, said he would investigate. “I want to say here, yes, we have been beaten by the Americans and we have been tortured,” Saddam responded, before gesturing towards his seven co-defendants, “one by one.” Launching into an extended outburst after sitting quietly through several hours of testimony, Saddam said he’d.......    More