Feb. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Former Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan, now awaiting execution, said in a sworn statement that he was tortured by U.S. personnel for three weeks after his 2003 arrest, according to a copy of the document made available by his lawyer.

According to the statement, dated March 22, 2006, and handwritten in Arabic, Ramadan said ``methods of torture'' were used against him after he failed to provide information on the whereabouts of deposed President Saddam Hussein while he was in hiding, or on the Iraqi resistance. The statement said Ramadan was held in a compound at the Baghdad airport, where he was kicked, beaten with an aluminum pipe and given limited access to water and a bathroom for 20 days.

``If these allegations are true, then the U.S. should set up an independent investigation,'' said Said Boumedouha, a London- based Middle East researcher for Amnesty International, an international human-rights organization. ``How can you say this trial was fair if some of the people were ill-treated or tortured before they were brought to court?''

Ramadan's co-defendants Hussein, Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti and Awad Hamed al-Bandar have already been executed by hanging. Ramadan was initially sentenced to life imprisonment for his role in the 1982 killing of 148 Shiite Muslims in the village of Dujail. An appeals court on Feb. 12 ruled the sentence too lenient and ordered his execution.

U.S. Response

A U.S. Defense Department spokesman, Army Colonel Gary Keck, said in Washington that he couldn't comment on Ramadan's allegations because of the possibility that they were the subject of an investigation by U.S. personnel. There was no immediate comment at the White House.

The statement, which was translated by Bloomberg News, was provided by Giovanni Di Stefano, an Italian lawyer representing Ramadan. He said a U.S. official in Baghdad, whom he declined to identify, sent it to him by e-mail on Feb. 6.

The document is written on what appears to be a U.S. Army ``Sworn Statement'' form number 2823. The statement was made at Camp Cropper, a U.S. base near Baghdad airport, and is purportedly signed by Ramadan and U.S. Army Criminal Investigative Division Special Agent Benjamin Bierce.

U.S. Army CID spokesman Christopher Grey in Washington confirmed Bierce works for the division. Grey, sent the document by e-mail, didn't respond to questions about its authenticity, and declined a request to speak directly to Bierce.

Meetings With Ramadan

Di Stefano represented Hussein and the other two Iraqi officials already hanged for the Dujail killings. Di Stefano was former Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic's lawyer, and now represents former Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz. He said he has been to Baghdad seven times over the last year, and that he met with Ramadan twice, including once in January.

Another of Ramadan's lawyers, former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, said he spoke with Ramadan's son-in-law in Amman, Jordan, who said Ramadan told him of the document.

The son-in-law, Basil al-Kabasi, ``confirmed to me that his father-in-law had told him he made the statement, and he confirmed the facts in the statement,'' Clark said in a telephone interview from his New York home. ``I don't think there's any question as to its authenticity.''

Clark said al-Kabasi ``said many people knew of the mistreatment. The other prisoners at Camp Cropper had seen his condition and heard his story.'' Clark has sued President George W. Bush, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and four top U.S. military officials to block Ramadan's transfer to Iraqi custody to be hanged.

Handing Him Over

Forces of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan reported arresting Ramadan and immediately handing him over to U.S. forces on Aug. 18, 2003. Ramadan's statement says he was captured on Aug. 17.

Immediately after his arrest, the statement said, Ramadan was brought before four people, one dressed in civilian clothes and three in ``the uniforms of the occupying American army.''

The man wearing the civilian clothes was the officer in charge, he said he found out later. Of the other three, ``One was the translator, one had an aluminum pipe, and the other had a leather whip,'' he said, according to the document.

``I was kicked to the floor,'' Ramadan said, according to the statement. ``When I said I was tired, they began kicking me. I was hit with the aluminum pipe, and forced to crawl. This went on.'' The statement said he wasn't allowed to use a bathroom, and was dragged through his own urine after he wet himself.

After a week of mistreatment, the statement said, Ramadan began to recite the Shahada, a Muslim prayer that is also said in preparation for death. When the officer found out what he was saying from the translator, he stepped on Ramadan's hand, dislocating one of his fingers, according to the document.

Praying to Allah

``I told them I pray to Allah to help me,'' Ramadan said in the document. ``They said, `Don't say Allah because America, and not Allah, can help you if you cooperate. And don't mention Allah in front of us from now on.'''

Ramadan said he was visited by a doctor twice over 22 days. The doctor told him that he would receive proper medical treatment ``by cooperating with investigators,'' according to the statement. Ramadan said in the document that he didn't know where Hussein was hiding, or anything about the resistance.

Lawyer Di Stefano said the information is relevant to his client's defense. ``This is significant,'' Di Stefano said, adding that Ramadan's execution should be postponed at least until the torture allegations are addressed.

United Nations Human Rights Commissioner Louise Arbour also is trying to block Ramadan's execution. She filed a legal brief on Feb. 9 with the Iraqi High Tribunal saying the trial process was unfair and in breach of international law.

Ramadan was No. 20 on the U.S.'s list of the 55 most-wanted officials of the Iraqi regime. A former bank clerk, Ramadan -- who reports variously say was born in 1936 or 1938 -- joined the military and became a member of the Baath Party in 1956. He served as Hussein's vice president from March 1991 until U.S. forces invaded Iraq in 2003.

To contact the reporters on this story: Steve Scherer in Rome at sscherer@bloomberg.net; Sheyam Ghieth in Rome at sghieth@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: February 18, 2007 19:01 EST