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]] The trials of Saddam Hussein , the former President Of Iraq , are being held under the Iraqi Special Tribunal . He is tried for Allegation s involving Human Rights Abuses In Iraq , in particular in the context of the failed Assassination attempt in Dujail in 1982. He may also be tried for events dating to the Iran-Iraq War and the Invasion Of Kuwait including War Crime s, Crimes Against Humanity , and Genocide . He could face the Death Penalty if convicted. On June 30 , 2004 , Hussein , held in custody by U.S. forces at Camp Cropper in Baghdad , along with eleven senior Ba'athist officials, was handed over to the Interim Iraqi government to stand Trial . Particular attention will be paid to alleged activities in violent campaigns against the Kurd s in the north during the Iran-Iraq War, and against the Shiite s in the south in 1991 and 1999 to put down Revolts . Saddam asserts that he has been unlawfully overthrown, and remains President of Iraq. FIRST HEARING The 68-year-old Deposed Iraqi leader appeared confident and defiant throughout the 46-minute hearing. Alternating between listening to and gesturing at the Judge Rizgar Mohammed Amin , Saddam Hussein questioned the Legitimacy of the Tribunal set up to try him. He called the court a "play aimed at Bush 's chances of winning the U.S. Presidential Elections ." He emphatically rejected charges against him. "This is all theatre. The real criminal is Bush," he stated. When asked by the judge to identify himself in his first appearance before an Iraqi judge, he answered, "You are an Iraqi, you know who I am." "I am still the president of the republic and the occupation cannot take that away," declared Saddam Hussein. Also during the arraignment, Saddam defended Iraq's August 1990 Invasion Of Kuwait and referred to Kuwait's rulers as " Dog s," which led to an admonishment from the judge for using coarse language in court (dogs are widely considered to be Unclean Animals in the Islam ic world). Later on July 1 , Kuwait's information Minister Abul-Hassan said crude language was "expected" of Saddam. "This is how he was raised," said the minister. Unlike the Conservative Monarch s in the area, which rule every other Arab nation in the Persian Gulf region, Saddam was born into a hard-scrabble, landless Peasant family and was allegedly beaten as a child. Although no Attorney s for Saddam were present at the July 1 hearing, his first wife, Sajida Talfah , has hired a multinational legal team of attorneys, headed by Jordan ian Mohammad Rashdan and including Ayesha Qaddafi ( Libya ), Curtis Doebbler ( United States ), Emmanuel Ludot ( France ), Marc Henzelin ( Switzerland ) and Giovanni Di Stefano ( United Kingdom ). Towards the end of the first hearing, the deposed president refused to sign the legal document confirming his understanding of the charges. PRE-TRIAL EVENTS , 2005.]] The London-based Arab-language daily newspaper Al-Quds Al-Arabi reported in early May 2005, that during a meeting with Donald Rumsfeld , "known only to a few Iraqi officials in Jordan ", Saddam refused an offer of release if he made a televised request to armed groups for a ceasefire with allied forces. Of important note is that no other major newspaper or wire service has since extensively covered this story. The British Daily Telegraph newspaper, quoting an unnamed senior UK government source, had reported two weeks before that Iraqi insurgents were being offered a "deal" whereby the former President of Iraq would receive a more lenient sentence if they gave up their attacks. On June 17 , 2005, , former Malaysia n prime minister Mahathir Mohamad , former U.S. Attorney Genneral Ramsey Clark , former minister of Foreign Affairs of France Roland Dumas and former President of Algeria Ahmed Ben Bella announced the formation, under their joint chairmanship, of an international Emergency Committee For Iraq , with a main objective of ensuring fair trials for Saddam and the other former Baath Party officials being tried with him. On July 18 , 2005, Saddam was charged by the Special Tribunal with the first of an expected series of charges, relating to the mass killings of the inhabitants of the village of Dujail in 1982 after a failed assassination attempt against him. On August 8 , 2005, Saddam's family announced that they had dissolved the Jordan-based legal team and that they had appointed Khalil Al-Duleimi , the only Iraq-based member, as the sole legal counsel. In an interview broadcast on Iraqi television on September 6 , 2005, Iraqi president Jalal Talabani said that he had directly extracted confessions from Saddam that he had ordered mass killings and other "crimes" during his regime and that he deserves to die. Two days later, Saddam's lawyer denied that he confessed. Saddam's defense repeatedly argued for a delay in the proceedings, insisting that it had not been given evidence secured by the prosecution, had not been given sufficient time to review any prosecution documents, but so far these submissions have received no response from the court. Meanwhile international human rights groups, including Human Rights Watch , Amnesty International as wel as UN bodies such as the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and the High Commissioner for Human Rights, have stated that the Iraqi Special Tribunal and its legal process does not meet international standards for a fair trial. The United Nations Secretary-General has also declined to support the proceeding, expressing similar concerns over fairness as well as over the possibility of a death sentence in the case. AL-DUJAIL TRIAL Iraqi authorities put Saddam and seven other former Iraqi officials on trial on October 19 2005 four days after the October 15 2005 Referendum on the new Constitution . The tribunal specifically charged the defendants with the killing of 143 Shiite s from Dujail , in retaliation for the failed assassination attempt of 8 July 1982 . Supporters of Saddam protested against the trial in Tikrit . Saddam's co-defendants are:
As in his pre-trial appearance, Saddam at the opening of his trial on October 19 appeared defiant and rejected the tribunal's legitimacy and independence from the control of foreign occupation. "I do not respond to this so-called court, with all due respect to its people, and I retain my constitutional right as the president of Iraq," Hussein declared. He added, "Neither do I recognize the body that has designated and authorized you, nor the aggression because all that has been built on false basis is false." Samajtantric Dal (BSD) in Dhaka , Bangladesh chant Slogan s demanding the immediate release of Hussein during a protest against his trial on October 20 , 2005 . One sign reads, 'free Saddam, hang Bush and Blair.' ]] When the judge asked for his name, Saddam said "I am the president of the Iraq", refused to state his name, but returned the question, asking Kurdish judge Rizgar Mohammed Amin , "Who are you? I want to know who you are". When Amin addressed Saddam as "the former president," Saddam objected emphatically, saying he was still the President of the Republic of Iraq, and had not been deposed. While Saddam's seven co-defendants appeared in traditional Arabic male dress, Saddam wore a dark suit and a white shirt. Al-Bandar, sitting next to Saddam in the front row in a pen of white metal bars, complained that the defendants had been stripped of their head-coverings, upon which they were given back to them. After the charges were read to them, all eight defendants pleaded not guilty. The first session of his trial lasted three hours. The court adjourned the case until 28 November 2005 , as some of the witnesses were too frightened to attend, and also to allow the defense more time to study evidence. During an interview with the Arab news agency Al-Arabiya following the opening of the trial, Hussein's eldest daughter Raghad branded the court a "farce" and boasted that her father behaved like a "lion" during the proceedings. "My father is brave, a lion, I am proud of him," she said. "He is a man who dedicated his life to serve his country, he was brave in his youth, so how can he be afraid now?" she added. On October 20 , 2005 , attorney Saadoun Sughaiyer Al-Janabi , charged with the defense of Awad Hamed al-Bandar, was abducted from his office by gunmen, and found shot dead near his office a few hours later. On November 8 , 2005 , attorney Adel Al-Zubeidi , who had been representing Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan and Abdullah Kazim Ruwayyid , was killed by three gunmen in Baghdad. Barazan Ibrahim 's lawyer Thamer Hamoud Al-Khuzaie was also wounded in the attack. On November 28 , 2005 , Chief Judge Rizgar Mohammed Amin adjourned the trial until December 5 to allow time to find replacements for two defense lawyers who were slain and another who fled Iraq after he was wounded. On December 5, Saddam's legal defense team stormed out of the court after questioning its legitimacy and asking about return of defence papers seized by U.S. Army troops and security issues regarding the protection of the defense. Saddam, along with his co-defendants, railed against Chief Judge Amin and the tribunal. The next day, after listening to hours of testimony against him, he lashed out at the judge. He said he was exhausted, did not intend on returning to the trial, and to "go to hell." On December 7 , 2005 , Saddam refused to enter court, complaining of the conditions in which he was being held and the conduct of the trial. Saddam's complaints included, among other things, that he had not been able to change his clothes for four days. On December 12 , 2005 , Instead of cross-examining witnesses, Saddam used the time to accuse his American captors of torturing him, saying, "I have been beaten on every place of my body, and the signs are all over my body." On January 23 , 2006 , Rauf Rashid Abd Al-Rahman was nominated interim chief judge of the tribunal. He replaces former chief judge Rizgar Amin , also a Kurd, who resigned after complaining of government interference. Hussein and his co-defendants objected to the change in judge, citing bias after he ordered defendant Barzan Ibrahim Al-Tikriti out of the court, and announced they would boycott the trial under Rahman. On February 1st they failed to show up to court. On March 15 , 2006 , Saddam was called by the prosecution as a witness. On the stand, he began making political statements, insisting he was still President of Iraq. He got in an argument with the judge, who eventually closed the trial to the public in response. . CRITICISM Charges
General arrangements
NOTES AND REFERENCES
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