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Iraq-Jordan
Saddam Trial Judge Says Probe Almost Complete
2005-07-14
The Iraqi judge in charge of questioning Saddam Hussein and his former regime henchmen said yesterday more than 80 percent of the investigation into their cases was complete amid increasing calls to speed up the trials. "The investigation is quite advanced with more than 80 percent completed (but) deciding the date of the trials is not the specialty of the investigative judges," Raed Juhi, a senior judge on the Iraqi Special Tribunal told AFP. The decision will be made by a five-person trial court panel, sources close to the tribunal recently said. Juhi is the judge who faced Saddam at a preliminary hearing in July 2004 and who appeared questioning the ousted leader in video footage released by the tribunal in June.
Posted by:Fred

#5  Oh, come on: probe him some more.
Posted by: Jackal   2005-07-14 15:50  

#4  The discovery process was slowed by European refusal to assist in the examination of the mass graves on grounds that Saddam would be subject to capital punishment.
Posted by: Seafarious   2005-07-14 12:52  

#3  Not really. They want the cases to be complete, and done to high standards of evidence, with procedure that's world class, in a way that tells the story for Iraqis and the world to hear. This entails a lot -- training (judges, clerks, prosecutors, forensic techs, on and on), gathering of evidence (try mass graves, millions of documents to be screened, witnesses to be interviewed), all in an environment where tribunal staff live secretively, in fear for their lives (oh, and hassled by politicians from the national assembly trying to futz around with the whole process for their own reaons).

Summary execution was richly merited, of course. But both the Iraqis and the coalition want full exploitation of the value of these trials for the strategic value they hold (internally and externally).

Inside word says there will be developments in the next few days.
Posted by: Verlaine in Iraq   2005-07-14 12:29  

#2  No shit. I mean, how hard can it be to find evidence on this guy? Sheesh.
Posted by: mojo   2005-07-14 09:59  

#1  Its about time.

Posted by: bernardz   2005-07-14 06:55  

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