Vienna, 12 Jan.
(AKI) - Saddam Hussein is likely to be handed down a
death sentence by the special tribunal that is
currently trying Iraq's former president and seven
co-defendants on charges of crimes against humanity,
American legal expert Jimmy Gurule has told the
Austrian Kurier newspaper in an interview carried by
the Austrian press agency on Thursday.
"A death sentence is very probable against Iraqi
ex-dictator Saddam Hussein," said Gurule, who was
one of a team of international experts who trained
the Iraqi judges presiding over the special tribunal
set up to try Saddam.
Garule predicted that the trial - at which Saddam
and his co-defendants are facing charges connected
with the murder of 143 Iraqi Shiite men and boys at
Dujail in 1982 - would not "drag on endlessly" like
that of Serbia's former president, Slobodan
Milosevic, at the UN's Hague war crimes tribunal for
the former Yugoslavia. |
Former dictator Saddam Hussein
Photo : AFP
|
|
Saddam's trial has already been adjourned several
times since it began in October, and is due to start
again on 24 January.
The most important issue at present was that Saddm's
trial should be fair, and "this is in fact the
case,” Garule stated. "But there should be
improvements, such as better protection for judges
and lawyers," he admitted. Two lawyers on Saddam's
defence team have been murdered since the start of
the trial, one of whom was kidnapped on its second
day.
Calling witnesses in the trial was also highly
problematic, because it endangered the lives of
people willing to testify against Saddam and his
co-defendants, as well as the lives of witnesses'
famiies, Garule added.
Many have expressed grave doubts whether
international fair trial standards are being met.
Saddam's lawyers complained they were not given
adequate time to properly prepare his and his
co-defendants' defence.
If the former military dictator does get the death
penalty for the Dujail massacres, "It would be
entirely at the discretion of the current tribunal
whether after a death sentence, further court cases
would be started against Saddam," Garule argued.
There is a long list of allegations against Saddam
for which he has yet to be charged. These include
other alleged crimes against humanity such as the
poison gas attack on the Kurdish town of Halabja in
1988, and the repression of the 1991 Shiite
uprising, as well as genocide against Iranians
during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war. Many have
speculated these cases may never come to court.
www.adnki.com
Top |
® 