BAGHDAD, November 3, -- Three years after he
gave himself up to American soldiers without firing
a shot, Saddam Hussein may be condemned to hang on
Sunday if an Iraqi court finds him guilty of crimes
against humanity.
The final act of Saddam's year-old first trial, the
verdict is the high point of a historic,
U.S.-sponsored experiment in international justice
intended to unite Iraqis in exorcising three decades
of rule by the former president, accused of mass
killing and torture to keep power over Iraq's
disparate peoples.
Yet the country's descent toward civil war since
Saddam was overthrown has blighted proceedings.
Three defence lawyers were killed, the judge quit
over political interference and Iraqis, who a year
ago gasped in wonder to see the former strongman in
court, have lapsed into distracted indifference to
his fate.
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Former dictator Saddam Hussein
Photo : AFP |
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Saddam, 69, and seven co-accused have been charged
with crimes against humanity for the killing of 148
Shi'ite villagers after an attempt on his life in
the town of Dujail in 1982.
If convicted, Saddam faces death by hanging, a
prospect Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, with
some disregard for judicial independence, has said
cannot come soon enough.
But a death sentence -- which Saddam with typical
bombast has demanded in court should instead be by
military firing squad -- may be many months, even
years, away. He is due back in court on Friday in a
separate trial for genocide against Kurds in the
1980s and could face up to a dozen other cases.
Since the trial opened in the heavily fortified
Baghdad courtroom in October last year, three
defence lawyers have been killed in attacks that the
defence team, dominated by Saddam's fellow Sunnis,
blamed on Shi'ite Muslim gunmen. The first chief
judge, a Kurd, resigned in protest over government
interference.
"LOST OPPORTUNITY"
"This is a lost opportunity to promote the rule of
law," legal observer Richard Dicker from Human
Rights Watch said.
Proceedings have taken place against a backdrop of
growing sectarian violence.
Many people in the Shi'ite town of Dujail refused to
speak to a Reuters reporter this week out of fear of
reprisals and several said they were concerned Sunni
insurgents might launch attacks in the area to
coincide with the verdict.
Far from being a catharsis for Iraqis scarred by
Saddam's rule, many feel the trial has deepened
animosities between rival communities 3-1/2 years
after the U.S.-led invasion.
Some international legal experts and human rights
activists have said the trial would be better held
in a third country.
In the village of Awja, Saddam's birthplace in the
Sunni heartland of Salahaddin province, many asked
for his release.
"If they want peace in Iraq, we demand they stop
this farce trial run by Bush and his aides," said
Ahmad al-Nasiri, standing next to the village
mosque, which was built by Saddam.
Saddam's chief lawyer has warned a death sentence
against the former leader, who is being held in a
U.S.-run prison, would plunge Iraq into "full scale
civil war."
Security in the fortified Green Zone, where the
courtroom is located, has been tightened ahead of
the verdict, which U.S. and Iraqi officials close to
the court say should be announced on Sunday --
though a delay cannot be ruled out.
Saddam has been defiant during televised
proceedings. He has staged hunger strikes, dismissed
the Iraqi High Tribunal as a U.S.-orchestrated
farce, and said the verdict has been rigged.
As U.S. President George W. Bush faces mounting
criticism over the war, a guilty verdict announced
two days ahead of tight U.S. congressional elections
on Nov. 7 could reflect positively on him as a
vindication of his policy to overthrow Saddam.
U.S. officials deny Washington had any say over the
timing of the verdict or the court's decisions,
saying the American role was limited to logistics
and security.
Throughout the Dujail case, Iraqi court officials
have been consulting closely with -- and, sources
close to the court say, firmly guided by -- American
lawyers from a U.S. Embassy department known as the
Regime Crimes Liaison Office.
The unit has been the conduit for $140 million in
U.S. funding for the court, and the driving force in
the sifting of tons of documents and advising
prosecutors.
In a recent briefing, a U.S. official close to the
court said the Saddam trial had more historical
significance than past trials against former
strongmen, including Liberia's Charles Taylor and
Yugoslavia's Slobodan Milosevic.
"Saddam is being tried by his own people and in his
land," the official said. "That is what this trial
is about." (Baghdad newsroom, editing by Dominic
Evans)
Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari said on
Monday a day after the chief prosecutor said a
verdict due on Nov. 5 could be delayed by a few
days, a move that would shift the announcement until
after the Nov. 7 U.S. congressional elections..
Reuters
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