Dec. 13
IRAQ:
One year since Saddam was captured, prospects for trial still unclear
In the year since he was captured and hustled away to a secret location,
deposed Iraqi president Saddam Hussein has taken up gardening, had a
hernia operation and written poetry.
What he has not done is meet with any of the 20 lawyers who claim to
represent him. And with his country in the grips of an insurgency that
remains strong, predicting when Iraq's most famous prisoner will be tried
is no easier now than it was on the day he was pulled from hiding in a
hole near his hometown Tikrit.
When Saddam first appeared before an Iraqi court in July, some officials
predicted a swift trial. Ever since, they have said October, November, or
by the end of the year. Now, they expect it no earlier than the beginning
of 2006, Iraq's National Security Adviser Mouwafak al-Rubaie said.
"This is going to be probably the trial of the century and we have to get
it right," al-Rubaie said.
"We can't suddenly try him and sentence him to either life in prison or
whatever, execute him a 100 times as some people want to do."
Officials said the work of gathering evidence - documents, mass grave
sites, testimony from victims - continues away from the public eye and
beyond the reach of the insurgents. They insist it is being done
meticulously and legitimately.
Officials with the U.S. Department of Justice's Regime Crimes Liaison
Office are advising the Iraqi Special Tribunal on the process of bringing
Saddam to trial. The Americans paid the tribunal's budget of $75 million
US for 2004-2005.
But with elections approaching Jan. 30, the Iraqi government is in flux
and is likely to stay that way for another year until a new constitution
is drafted and another round of elections are held next December.
Trainers also face a dearth of qualified Iraqi prosecutors, defence
lawyers and judges. If proper lawyers are found, they take a new kind of
risk - threat from both the guerrillas, believed to be mostly Sunni
Muslims like Saddam, or others trying to stymie the trial.
There are few Iraqi lawyers willing to represent him, while prosecutors
fear challenging him. The same goes for the judges overseeing the case,
slowing its work.
The Americans predicted Saddam's capture would cripple the insurgency.
They portrayed violence immediately after his capture as the last gasp of
desperate loyalists.
"Saddam's era is over," U.S. air force Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the
joint chiefs of staff, said days after Saddam was captured.
"But it takes time for people to accept the changes."
Since then, the guerillas have continued exacting a bloody toll against
U.S. troops and their Iraqi collaborators.
The United States is increasing troop levels to 150,000, higher than they
were when the war began, in hopes of providing safety for the Jan. 30
elections.
U.S. attention has also shifted to another figure - Abu Musab al-Zarqawi -
believed to be leading the campaign of hostage-takings, beheadings and
bombings that target Americans and Iraqi collaborators.
Al-Rubaie said officials suspect, however, Saddam may have played a role
in the continued insurgency.
"We have evidence that he has prepared for the military defeat and he has
prepared his party for military resistance after the liberation,"
al-Rubaie said.
"And there is mounting evidence that he has put in motion and put in place
a mechanism and capabilities, money, planning, training, to start
immediately after the liberation."
Saddam first appeared before the court July 1, without a lawyer. He was
presented with seven preliminary charges that included gassing thousands
of Kurds in 1988, the 1990 invasion of Kuwait, the suppression of 1991
revolts by Kurds and Shiites, the murders of religious and political
leaders and the mass-displacement of Kurds in the 1980s.
>From Saddam's standpoint, little headway has been made since. He is said
to have a 20-member legal team with lawyers from Belgium, Britain, France,
Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya and Tunisia but has met none of them. A
lawyer was supposed to meet him for the first time last Wednesday but the
U.S. military cancelled it.
"Denying him this right is a serious breach of international protocols,"
Saddam's lawyers, who were appointed by his wife, Sajida, said in a
statement Sunday timed with the anniversary.
The Jordan-based team called for Saddam's immediate release, calling his
detention "illegal right from the very beginning."
"We are extremely disappointed," said Ziad al-Khasawneh.
"Nobody knows anything, except God and the American administration."
11 other defendants then appeared one by one to hear the charges against
them.
On Sunday, a lawyer said some of the detainees have gone on hunger strike
in protest against their detention, a lawyer said Sunday. A U.S. military
official confirmed some had been turning back their main meals but
continue to snack.
"They don't acknowledge the legality of their trials or their detention,"
said the lawyer, Izzat Aref, an Iraqi appointed by the family of former
deputy prime minister Tariq Aziz.
Some Iraqis claim the process has been politicized. Speculation once
swirled that Saddam would be hastily tried and executed during the hubbub
of the U.S. election. Salem Chalabi, the tribunal director, was abruptly
ousted in September and accused interim prime minister Ayad Allawi of
pushing for show trials to boost his popularity ahead of the Jan. 30
elections.
"Saddam could reveal very important information and his trial could become
a lesson not only for the Iraqi people but for history and humanity," said
Entifadh Qanbar, spokesman for the Iraqi National Congress party, led by
Chalabi's uncle Ahmad Chalabi.
"Unfortunately, this opportunity is going away and this court is losing
its credibility."
The court then lost a partner when the United Nations refused to help
train judges because the world body will not co-operate with courts that
can impose the death penalty.
In the meantime, Saddam seems to have settled into a humdrum existence
behind bars.
He receives regular visits from the Red Cross, which passes letters from
him to his family. He leaves his 4-metre-by-5-metre cell twice a day for
recreation, which includes exercising and tending plants, said al-Rubaie,
who visited him three months ago.
Saddam has also had a hernia operation and his blood pressure varies, a
U.S. official said. He also has an enlarged prostate which isn't an
immediate concern.
He is said to be writing a novel, Get Out, You Damned, excerpts of which
have appeared in a London-based Arab newspaper, and has also written
poetry.
(source: Associated Press)
