BAGHDAD (Reuters)
- The tribunal trying Saddam Hussein said on
Thursday its new chief judge would preside over the
next session on January 24, despite calls for him to
be barred for suspected links to Saddam's Baath
party.
An official of the independent Debaathification
Commission told Reuters on Wednesday Sayeed al-Hamashi
was the subject of an inquiry and should be removed
from his post.
The allegations threw the U.S.-sponsored court into
fresh confusion after the resignation last week of
chief judge Rizgar Amin, a Kurd, who quit in protest
at political interference.
Hamashi, Amin's deputy, was promoted to the top job.
He has denied any links to the Baath party and his
fellow judges appeared to rally around him on
Thursday to defend his record. |
Former dictator Saddam Hussein
Photo : AFP
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Tribunal spokesman Judge Raid Jouhi said the judges
in the Saddam trial had been carefully selected for
their professionalism and integrity.
"The judges are well known and their history is also
well known and they are professionals. So far it is
Judge Hamashi who is going to head the next
session," he told Reuters.
PUZZLEMENT
Hamashi had previously been the only other judge to
appear on television with Amin in coverage of the
trial.
Ali Faisal, executive manager of the
Debaathification Commission, said Hamashi's position
came to the Commission's notice when he was named as
Amin's replacement.
Jouhi said he was puzzled as to why the commission
had only realized now that Hamashi was one of the
judges trying Saddam.
"Hamashi had been working in this court for a year
and seven months and was shown on TV many times, so
I don't understand why the commission has suddenly
woken up to this, why they didn't realize before,"
he said.
He said the commission must back up its claims: "Do
they have this evidence? Any evidence must be
examined carefully."
The Commission, set up under U.S. military rule
after Saddam's overthrow in 2003, is charged with
rooting out members of the Baath party from
positions of power.
Hamashi, a Shi'ite and the most senior of the four
other judges on the panel trying Saddam in the first
case for crimes against humanity, was named by court
officials on Monday as taking over temporarily, in
accordance with standard procedure.
Sources inside the High Tribunal said he had also
emerged as the consensus choice of his fellow judges
to take over permanently in the event Amin stood by
his resignation, which has not yet been accepted by
the government.
Reuters
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