NICOSIA, Jan 29,
(AFP) - The trial of deposed Iraqi president
Saddam Hussein on crimes against humanity was set to
resume on Sunday with a new chief judge, amid
growing concerns about the credibility of the court.
Sunday's session will be closely watched to see how
the new judge handles what has up until now been a
tumultuous chamber, characterized by outbursts from
both angry defendants and prosecutors.
The trial is to pick up four days after the first
session of the new year was adjourned early due,
according to the court, to the absence of the
necessary witnesses.
But the appointment of the new presiding judge
following the January resignation of Rizkar Mohammed
Amin, the chief judge and public face of the trial
for its past seven sessions, has increasingly raised
questions.
A leading human rights watchdog said Amin's
resignation has cast doubt on the fairness of the
whole trial, which has also seen two defence lawyers
murdered. |
Former dictator Saddam Hussein
Photo : AFP
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Several members of parliament and government
officials had publicly criticized Amin for what they
viewed as lenient treatment of Saddam and his seven
co-defendants, on trial for the killing of 148
inhabitants of the Shiite village of Dujail in 1982.
"The demand for presiding judge Rizkar Amin's
dismissal, which contributed to his resignation, was
nothing less than an attack on judicial
independence," said Richard Dicker, director of the
International Justice Program at Human Rights Watch,
in a statement.
Nehal Bhuta, also with Human Rights Watch, noted
that Amin had shown great progress over the course
of the trial and was respected for his non-partisan
approach to a very politically loaded case.
"Amin was clearly even-handed and had great
integrity and he was a very attractive face for
justice in the new Iraq," he said.
Amin's successor was originally expected to be Said
al-Hammashi, a Shiite and the next senior judge on
the five-person panel. However, he was transferred
off the court after the de-Baathification committee
protested over his appointment due to his alleged
membership in the former ruling party.
The reshuffle of the judges also means that a
significant proportion of the panel will not have
been present for the previous 15 witnesses'
testimony.
"The resignation of Judge Amin and the transfer of
Judge al-Hammashi mean that two of the five judges
who have heard the witness testimony are now off the
case," noted Dicker.
"It will be difficult for the new judges to
impartially evaluate the testimony they missed,
damaging the integrity of the trial."
A judge from outside the chamber altogether, Rauf
Rasheed Abdel Rahman, also a Kurd, was appointed to
head the trial, a move that reports say has irked
the other judges.
Abdel Rahman, 64, is the vice president of the
criminal court in the northern town of Arbil and
helped found the human rights organization of the
Kurdish autonomous region in 1991.
He was twice arrested by the Iraqi government and at
one point was tortured so badly he was partly
paralyzed.
Abdel Rahman was born in Halabja, the Kurdish town
bombed by Saddam's forces with chemical weapons in
1988 -- another of the events for which Saddam could
be tried later.
The trial is to begin with further prosecution
witnesses from Dujail who will describe suffering at
the hands of Saddam and his aides. The witnesses'
identities and voices will most likely be concealed.
Subsequent sessions will feature officials of the
former regime testifying about what happened in
Dujail, followed by documentary evidence aiming to
link the defendants to the events.
AFP
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