Trial was politically motivated

Illustration by Nino Jose Heredia/Gulf News

November 6, 2006

By Linda S. Heard, Special to Gulf News

Saddam and his co-defendants have been cheated out of a fair trial, so have their alleged victims.

Whatever your view of the former Iraqi leader and his crimes, his trial was a farce with a predetermined verdict of death by hanging. It's unfortunate because not only have Saddam and his co-defendants been cheated out of a fair trial, so have their alleged victims.

Unlike cases tried at Nuremburg post-Second World War or, more recently, at The Hague, this will go down in history as a political show-trial, designed to serve the interests of foreign occupiers.

Even the date of the sentencing is suspect coming as it has two days before mid-term elections in the US and on a Sunday when the court is normally closed for business.

American viewers, on the other hand, are more likely to be glued to their sets on a weekend although it's doubtful many will be swayed to vote Republican on news of Saddam's imminent demise.

Saddam has lost his relevance in a country more interested in the lurid sex exploits of an evangelical church leader said to be close to President George W. Bush and a Republican senator's raunchy e-mails sent to young boys.

Besieged by complaints from the defence team over a lack of access to their client and crucial documents as well as pleas for an international security contingent due to the assassination of two defence lawyers, the court already stood on shaky ground.

So much so, that the UN and Amnesty International refused to endorse it citing concerns over the court's fairness.

It didn't add to the court's credibility when Judge Rizgar Ameen was leaned on by the Iraqi government to resign due to his eagerness to display scrupulous impartiality and his belief that the defendants were innocent until proven guilty.

He was replaced by a grouchy Kurd who could hardly hide his disdain for the accused or his personal resentment against them.

Judge Raouf Abdul Rahman repeatedly threw defence lawyers out of his court forcing the accused to be represented by court-appointed attorneys, who knew little, if anything, about the case.

At the same time, anonymous witnesses were allowed to give evidence from behind curtains, while "deceased" victims allegedly turned up in Iran and Algeria very much alive.

More importantly, government figures have repeatedly prejudiced the case with their comments. Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki and Vice-President Adil Abdul Mahdi have both called for a swift execution even before Saddam was judged guilty.

"It has become clear to the Iraqi people and the whole world that this court is politicised 100 per cent," said Salih Al Mutlaq, head of the largest Sunni parliamentarian block.

Abdul Haq Alani, a lawyer who acts as a consultant to Saddam's defence team, said people would always judge the trial as unjust due to prosecutors and judges being affiliated to political parties.

A London-based lawyer Sa'ad Jabbar accused the international community of having failed Iraq by not insisting the trial be moved to an international arena. "You won't find one person in Iraq who isn't biased," he said. "It's a mockery of justice to expect the trial to be fair."

Whether the trial was fair or otherwise appears to be of little concern to Iraq's occupiers, however. Never mind that Britain is vehemently against the death penalty to the extent of asking Pakistan to stay the execution of a British-Pakistani and twisting Washington's arm not to sentence British "shoe-bomber" Richard Reid to death.

If you remember, too, Turkey had to forego the death penalty before its membership to the EU could even be entertained.

Lauded the verdict

Another Reid, the British Home Secretary John Reid (no relation), has lauded the verdict, which he describes as "a sovereign decision by a sovereign nation", forgetting that said "sovereign nation" has to ask US permission to move its own troops according to its prime minister, who has absolutely no say over which of his country's cities and towns will be levelled next.

Bush described the sentence as a major achievement for Iraq's young democracy and its constitutional government. I still find it hard to get my head around a country that is occupied being considered a democracy or a constitutional government having to take orders from foreigners.

White House spokesman Tony Snow called it "a good day for the Iraqi people" before fending off accusations that the sentencing date has been fixed to influence mid-term elections. "The idea that somehow we've been scheming and plotting with the Iraqis is preposterous," he said.

Member of Saddam's legal team Bushra Al Khelil might think differently. She told Al Jazeera that Americans approached her to persuade her not to launch a vigorous defence of Saddam and revealed that Americans and Britons work in and around the court itself.

Saddam and his co-accused have 30 days in which to appeal but the likelihood of an appellant court not upholding the sentence is minimal.

In this case we'll probably never know whether the former US ambassador to Iraq, April Glaspie, gave Saddam the green light to invade Kuwait or details of US involvement in the eight-year Iran-Iraq conflict.

Some commentators believe the death sentence passed against Saddam was meant to be an example for other leaders who refuse to play by the US unwritten rule book.

Others believe Saddam is about to receive his just rewards for the murder and torture of Iraqis. I can only hope that all those responsible for the murder and torture of Iraqis will one day receive theirs but in a world where victor's justice prevails I shan't hold my breath.

Commentary:

'No Control'

by Housewife4Palestine

It is amazing how America are saying they had no control of the outcome to Saddam’s trial when if you look not even closely, that since they are the occupier’s of Iraq and what has all the ears marks of full control from the new government to the dirt of the occupying forces boots.

What gives them the right to think we would believe this newest bantering by those who have proven time and again they have no respect for human life or have a history of telling lies with no knowledge what it means to tell the truth, even down to what they had for breakfast this morning?

Give a break and crawl back in your holes!