Saddam Hussein could be tried after other members of his ousted regime, Iraq’s ambassador to the United States has said. Saddam will be handed over to Iraqi justice on Wednesday, two days after the country regained sovereignty from Washington, but US soldiers will still guard him to ensure he does not escape. Interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi said on Tuesday that Saddam and up to 11 top members of his ousted government would appear before Iraqi judges to be charged on Thursday, although a trial was still months away. "I have always believed that the sooner Saddam Hussein was brought in the courtroom, the better for Iraq", Iraqi ambassador Rend Rahim said. "We’re approaching that trial," she said at a conference called at a conservative Washington think-tank, the American Enterprise Institute. "It could happen in the coming weeks, it might start with the trials of lesser persons, like Ali Hassan al-Majid (known as Chemical Ali)". She called the trials "a cleansing, reconciliation process" and "a kind of reverse trauma the Iraqis need to go through". "It’s an important part of working out their legacy." Saddam would be charged with crimes against humanity for a 1988 massacre of Kurds, the 1990 invasion of Kuwait and the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war, said Salem Chalabi, a lawyer leading the work of a tribunal that will try the former Iraqi leader.
| Hummm, wonder if the Iranians will send witnesses? |
French lawyer Emmanuel Ludot, one of a 20-strong team appointed by Saddam’s wife to represent him, said the former president would refuse to acknowledge any court or any judge. "It will be a court of vengeance, a settling of scores,"
Gee, ya think?
Mr Ludot told France Info radio, saying any judge sitting in the court would be under pressure to find Saddam guilty. Mr Ludot said he expected Saddam to say last year’s US-led war was illegal. |