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Saddam may go on trial within two months
31.5.2005
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BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Iraqi President Jalal Talabani
said Tuesday in an interview with CNN that
authorities expected to put Saddam Hussein on trial
in the next two months.
"The court of Iraq will decide the future of Saddam
Hussein," Talabani said, adding that there was a
strong public desire for him to be executed if
convicted.
CNN said Talabani had said the proceedings would
start in the next two months. |
Photo : Saddam AP |
"Saddam Hussein is a war criminal," Talabani said,
noting that he had committed "crimes against Iraqi
people" in Kurdistan as well as Shiite areas of
southern Iraq and in Baghdad.
Noting that he was a lawyer, Talabani said in
English that he would have to await the outcome of
the trial process "but the Iraqi people from now are
starting to ask for executing Saddam Hussein and for
sentencing him for death."
Saddam's attorney, Khalil al-Dulaimi, expressed
surprise at Talabani's comments.
"I was not informed officially that they are
speeding up the trial, but anyway I will check
tomorrow and then I will have a comment," he told
The Associated Press by telephone.
Saddam's trial could be a highly divisive issue in
already turbulent Iraq. If court proceedings begin
in two months, they may coincide with the process to
draft a constitution. The draft must be finished by
mid-August and approved in a referendum two months
later, clearing the way for December elections.
Last week, Iraq's planning minister, Barham Salih,
said the chief justice of the special tribunal in
charge of prosecution in Baghdad had told him that
"within the next few months Saddam Hussein could be
brought before the court."
U.S. forces captured Saddam in December 2003 hiding
in a concealed hole near his hometown of Tikrit, 80
miles north of Baghdad. He is jailed at a complex
near Baghdad airport named Camp Cropper, which holds
110 high-profile detainees.
Charges against Saddam include killing rival
politicians during his 30-year rule, gassing Kurds,
invading Kuwait and suppressing Kurdish and Shiite
uprisings in 1991. He was arraigned in July without
defense counsel and will be tried before a special
Iraqi tribunal.
AP |
President Jalal Talabani
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