|
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Saddam Hussein and his top
lieutenants will take a step closer to trial in the
coming weeks but don't expect an O.J. Simpson-style
courtroom drama, a Western legal expert involved in
the process says.
Saddam and 11 of his most senior aides face charges
that range from crimes against humanity to genocide
after decades of brutal rule ended in April 2003 by
the U.S.-led invasion.
The Western expert, briefing reporters on the
condition of anonymity, said on Wednesday the next
hurdle in the process was when investigating judges
refer charges against some of the 12 to an Iraqi
trial court. He said that this would happen "in
weeks".
"Chemical Ali", Saddam's feared cousin Ali Hassan
al-Majid, and former defence minister Sultan Hashem
are expected to be two of the first accused to go to
trial.
Once lodged, proceedings could move fast, depending
on how many pre-trial challenges to the legitimacy
of the process are made by defence lawyers.
Many in Iraq want speedy justice and death for the
leaders of a government that murdered and tortured
hundreds of thousands.
Iraq has the death penalty, traditionally delivered
by either hanging or firing squad. But there will be
no show trial in the Western sense, although the
proceedings will be televised and open to the
public.
"It is not going to be a system where you have
Johnnie Cochran cross-examining somebody in the O.J.
case for these periods of drama," he said, referring
to the defence lawyer who helped U.S. celebrity O.J.
Simpson defeat murder charges in 1995.
This type of trial by jury does not exist in Iraq,
or indeed in many other places outside the United
States and Britain.
Instead, Iraq's civil law system, which mirrors the
civil law proceedings of European countries such as
France and Italy, will plot a much more methodical
and systematic path.
TRIALS MAY BE BRIEF
Nor will the trial itself take very long, although
all the accused will have the right to an appeal.
"Trials in civil law settings are nowhere near as
protracted as trials in common law settings," said
the expert, comparing a process that would last only
a couple of months to U.S. hearings that can stretch
into a year or more.
Judgment and sentencing are made simultaneously in
Iraq.
The accused will face five judges in the trials
court, who will cross-examine witnesses on
atrocities such as the gas attacks against Kurds in
the north in the 1980s, for which Chemical Ali is
accused, or the suppression of the 1991 Shi'ite
uprising in the south.
Trials will also probably be run separately for the
different crimes, for example one trial for the
Kurdish killings and a different one for the
crushing of the Shi'ite rebellion.
Witnesses may enter protection programs and some
will probably appear in secrecy to safeguard their
identities and prevent reprisals. They may also have
to address the court at the same time as other
witnesses, if the judges decide that they have
offered conflicting testimony.
The trial judges, who act as questioners and have a
much more prominent role than either the prosecution
or defence lawyers, must also weigh an absolute
mountain of evidence.
Some of this has come from more than a dozen mass
graves that have been exhumed and studied by
forensic experts seeking clues to crimes that span
more than 25 years.
"I will give you an example. In the Anfal campaign
(in Kurdistan) we have 182,000 killed, thousands of
villages destroyed and millions of documents that
need to be studied and prepared to build the case,"
Iraqi Human Rights Minister Bakhtiar Amin told
reporters this week.
"Identifying responsibility in the chain of command
and who gave the orders is not going to be easy."
© Reuters 2005. All Rights Reserved.
Top |
® 