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Iraqi PM Pushes for Rapid Saddam Trial
1.7.2005
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BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq's prime minister
cranked up the pressure on magistrates investigating
Saddam Hussein for war crimes, saying a trial could
start in a month or two.
Skip to next paragraph A stream of such statements
from the government, which seems keen to get the
former president in the dock before a December
election, have already drawn frosty remarks about
judicial independence from judges investigating the
old regime's crimes.
The eagerness of the Shi'ites and Kurds now running
Iraq for a swift trial and possible execution of the
man who oppressed them for three decades is also at
odds with what some observers say are U.S.
preferences for a full-blown war crimes process that
could bolster President Bush's justification for
invasion.
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Former dictator
Saddam Hussein
Photo : AP |
And
lawyers and officials involved in the process said
on Thursday that Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari's
comments that a trial could start on Aug. 15, Sept
15, or at any rate within three months, would call
for the tightest of legal scheduling.
"We cannot pinpoint a specific date, maybe a month
or two,'' Jaafari told reporters in Kuwait late on
Wednesday.
"Maybe Aug. 15 or Sept. 15.
"But we have succeeded in making the deadline not to
exceed three months, instead of being open-ended.''
Tribunal rules stipulate a 45-day delay between a
judge referring a case for trial and courtroom
proceedings. The referral can only be once an
investigation is complete. Tribunal sources have
said the investigation might wind up in mid-August.
"If there were a referral today, I suppose a trial
could in theory start in mid-August,'' said one
official involved in the judicial process in
Baghdad. "But it is improbable.''
TIMELINE UNCLEAR
A month ago, President Jalal Talabani said he hoped
a trial could start by late July, which is now
impossible if legal forms are to be observed as
Saddam's fellow minority Sunni Arabs have been
demanding.
Official spokesmen for the Special Tribunal set up
under U.S. occupation to try Saddam and his aides
were not immediately available for comment. Nor was
Saddam's attorney.
But a lawyer for Tareq Aziz, his former deputy prime
minister, said when asked about Jaafari's August
date: "No. A thousand times No. They can't do it,
not even in September.
"I even doubt they can do it this year. It is very,
very difficult. The investigation needs time. This
talk is not about legal facts. It is political
rhetoric,'' lawyer Badea Aref said.
Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari said more
cautiously last week that Saddam could go on trial
by the end of the year.
Saddam and 11 of his top lieutenants are being held
at a U.S. military camp at Baghdad airport and
officials say a special courtroom is nearly
completed in the fortified compound in the city
center that once housed his presidential palaces.
While insisting they will not be rushed, magistrates
have questioned at least 20 suspects and released
video of several of them, including Saddam and Aziz,
being interviewed, clearly keen to show it is
pushing ahead with the judicial process.
Senior officials, including Abdelaziz al-Hakim, one
of the main Shi'ite forces behind Jaafari, have
complained of "foreign interference'' holding up the
trial -- apparently a reference to U.S. involvement
behind the scenes.
Lawyers involved in the process have said Washington
would prefer to wait to prepare a major war crimes
trial, as at Nuremberg or The Hague, which might,
among other things, bolster the administration's
case for invading Iraq.
Others say, however, that a narrower trial might
give Saddam less opportunity to argue the politics
of the case or embarrass Washington by recalling its
former support for him.
The Iraqi government says it may try Saddam over the
1982 killings of dozens of Shi'ite villagers at
Dujail.
Though limited in scope it may be easier to prove
his responsibility in such a test case, officials
say. He and several aides have already been
questioned on the case -- as many as 140 were killed
after a failed assassination attempt against Saddam.
SYRIAN VISIT
Much of Iraq saw a respite from the Sunni insurgent
violence that has marked the two months since
Jaafari took power. U.S. Marines said they arrested
13 suspects in an operation against insurgents in
the Euphrates valley, a key entry route from Syria
for foreign fighters and would-be suicide bombers.
The U.S. military released figures showing there
were about 100 car bombs in April and in May,
compared to a monthly average of barely half that
earlier in the year: "They've gone to more
spectacular systems that can inflict more casualties
per attack,'' said spokesman Brigadier General
Donald Alston.
The United States and Iraq have complained
repeatedly to Syria to stop Islamist radicals coming
across its borders.
Visiting Syrian diplomats told Deputy Foreign
Minister Hamed al-Bayati that they had already
prevented 70,000 foreigners entering Iraq. They said
they would open an embassy in Baghdad for the first
time since Saddam broke with Damascus in 1980 over
Syria's support for Iran in its war with Iraq.
Reuters
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