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BAGHDAD, Iraq Nov 8, 2005 — A lawyer for a co-defendant in Saddam Hussein's trial was shot to death and another lawyer was wounded Tuesday in Baghdad, a member of the defense team said.
Adel al-Zubeidi, who was representing former Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan, was killed and another lawyer was wounded in an ambush in the Adil neighborhood, according to lawyer Khamis al-Obeidi.
Al-Zubeidi was the second defense attorney to be killed in less than a month.
On Oct. 20, Saadoun al-Janabi, was abducted from his office by 10 masked gunmen, a day after he attended the first session of the trial, acting as the lawyer for co-defendant Awad al-Bandar.
Al-Janabi's body, with two bullet shots to the head, was found hours later on a sidewalk near Fardous Mosque in the eastern neighborhood of Ur in Baghdad, near the site of his office.
http://www.abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=1291422
SHANIANUTS!
11-08-2005, 10:52am
I guess the bottom line is Saddam's lawyers are going down like him....
Saddam, co-defendants forced to attend trial
Ex-Iraq leader shouts 'Down with Bush'; co-defendants struggle with guards
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Saddam Hussein was forced to attend his trial Monday, looking haggard and wearing a robe rather than his usual crisp suit as he shouted “Down with Bush.” His top co-defendant struggled with guards bringing him in and sat on the floor, his back to the judge, for much of the session.
After the stormy start, prosecutors put on the stand two members of Saddam’s regime for the first time and produced documents trying to link the former Iraqi leader directly to torture and executions that allegedly took place in a 1982 crackdown in the Shiite town of Dujail.
The two witnesses — Ahmed Hussein Khudayer al-Samarrai, the head of Saddam’s presidential office, and Hassan al-Obeidi, an intelligence officer — complained they were being forced to testify.
Al-Samarrai, who held his post from 1984-1991 and then again from 1995 until the fall of the regime in April 2003, insisted he knew nothing about the events in Dujail.
“I am not fit to be a witness in this case,” al-Samarrai told the court, bringing a smile from Saddam.
Prosecutors produced a 1984 document in Arabic allegedly signed by al-Samarrai stating that Saddam ratified “the execution of the Dujail detainees.”
Asked whether the signature was his handwriting, al-Samarrai said he could not be sure. “I don’t remember,” he said. “I don’t remember anything at all.”
Al-Obeidi, who worked as a manager in the Mukhabarat, or intelligence agency, from 1980-1991, said guards had forced him to testify then argued with the prosecutor over his role, bringing laughter from Saddam.
Adjournment until Tuesday
After the three-hour session, chief judge Raouf Abdel-Rahman adjourned the court until Tuesday.
Twenty-six prosecution witnesses have testified since the trial began Oct. 19, many providing heart-wrenching accounts of torture and years of imprisonment in the crackdown launched in the wake of a 1984 attempt on Saddam’s life in Dujail. But none directly linked Saddam to their ordeal.
In an apparent attempt to speed up the proceedings, investigating judges read short affidavits by 23 more witnesses Monday rather than having them take the stand. Their testimony resembled that of past witnesses.
Another document the prosecutors produced was a 1987 memo from the presidential office’s legal department saying two people sentenced to death in connection with Dujail had not been executed and suggesting those responsible for the “negligence” be investigated.
A note written in the margin, allegedly in Saddam’s handwriting, approved the investigation but says the two people should be spared execution “because we cannot allow coincidence to be more compassionate than us.”
Raucous start
Saddam and his seven co-defendants are on trial in the killing of nearly 150 Shiite Muslims in Dujail north of Baghdad. If convicted, they could face the death penalty by hanging.
Abdel-Rahman pressed ahead with the session after a raucous start resulting from his decision to force Saddam, his half-brother Barzan Ibrahim and the six other co-defendants to attend the session.
The defendants had vowed not to participate in the trial until the return of their lawyers. The defense team is boycotting the proceedings until Abdel-Rahman is removed, alleging he is biased against their clients.
Monday’s session — the first in 11 days — opened with chants against President Bush, shouting matches, arguments and insults from Saddam and Ibrahim.
Even their dress signaled their defiance at being in the court. Ibrahim wore a white T-shirt, his head bare without the Arab headdress he insisted on wearing in past sessions as a mark of dignity. Saddam carried a Quran and wore a blue galabeya — a traditional Arab robe — with a black overcoat, a stark contrast to the tailored black suits he has worn to past sessions.
Saddam entered the court on his own, stood in front of his chair and shouted, pointing a finger, “Down with Bush. Long live the nation.”
“Why have you brought us with force?” Saddam shouted at Abdel-Rahman. “Your authority gives you the right to try a defendant in absentia. Are you trying to overcome your own smallness?”
“The law will be implemented,” Abdel-Rahman replied.
“Degradation and shame upon you, Raouf,” Saddam yelled. Later, he called the investigating judges “homosexuals.”
Ibrahim, shouting angrily, struggled with guards who led him into the courtroom by his arms. He argued with the judge, who ordered him to sit.
Back to the judge
But Ibrahim, Saddam’s former intelligence chief, refused and sat on the floor with his back to the judge. He remained there until al-Samarrai took the stand, when Ibrahim got back in his chair to see.
Abdel-Rahman took over as chief judge last month, taking a tough stance to impose order after his predecessor resigned amid criticism over tumultuous proceedings marked by frequent, profane outbursts by Saddam and Ibrahim.
The defense team walked out Jan. 29 after Abdel-Rahman threw one of their colleagues out of the courtroom. Saddam and three co-defendants were allowed to leave or were forcibly removed, and the judge appointed replacements for the defense lawyers.
In the following session Feb. 1, only three defendants attended. None showed up the next day and Saddam’s lawyers have said they will continue to boycott the trial as long as Abdel-Rahman is on the bench.
The defense claims that Abdel-Rahman is unfit to try the case because he was sentenced to life in absentia in the 1970s for subversive activity. Saddam became president in 1979, but was Iraq’s most powerful man for several years before that.
© 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11302827/
Saddam tells court he’s on hunger strike
Ex-Iraqi leader, co-defendants protest trial before proceedings adjourned
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Saddam Hussein and three former officials in his regime on Tuesday told the court handling their trial that they were on a hunger strike in protest of the judge overseeing the proceedings.
Saddam said he had not eaten in three days, while his former intelligence chief, Ibrahim Barzan, said he had been on strike for two days. Their claims of a hunger strike could not be independently confirmed. The defendants are being held in U.S. detention, and U.S. officials could not immediately be reached to comment.
Investigative judge Raid Juhi did not deny the defendants were refusing food when asked about the strike after the day’s three-hour session. “This is an administrative problem that the court is working to verify and it will work also to solve it... with the responsible parties in the custodial authorities,” he told reporters.
But, as you could see, the defendants are in good health,” he said.
Chief judge Raouf Abdel-Rahman, who took over the court last month, has worked to impose order in a court where outbursts and arguments have frequently overshadowed the testimony.
Saddam furious
At the start of Tuesday’s session, Saddam told the judge, “For three days we have been holding a hunger strike protesting against your way of treating us — against you and your masters.”
Ibrahim, who wore only his long underwear for the second day in a row, complained that he and the other defendants had been forced to attend the proceedings against their will.
“You brought me by force in my pajamas and I have been on a hunger strike for two days,” he said.
The defendants refused to attend sessions last month after their defense team walked out of court. The defense lawyers have refused to participate in the trial until Abdel-Rahman is removed, accusing him of bias against Saddam.
Abdel-Rahman appointed new defense lawyers, but Saddam and other defendants refused to accept them. But on Monday, Abdel-Rahman ordered the defendants to attend the session. Saddam entered on his own, but Ibrahim had to be pulled into the court — shouting and struggling and wearing only his long underwear — by guards who held him by the arms.
Former regime members testify
The prosecution continued its attempts to prove Saddam and his seven co-defendants were directly involved in a wave of arrests and executions that followed a 1982 attempt on his life in the Shiite village of Dujail.
It put three former members of Saddam’s regime — a former secretary of Saddam, a former governor and an anonymous intelligence official — on the witness stand in three hours of testimony, before Abdel-Rahman adjourned the proceedings until Feb. 28.
The prosecution displayed to the court a document dated July 21, 1982 — 12 days after the assassination attempt — in which the Mukhabarat, the intelligence agency headed by Ibrahim, recommended rewards for six employees officials for their role in the arrests.
The document bore a signature that the prosecution said was Ibrahim’s. Below it was written the word “agreed” with what was allegedly Saddam’s signature.
On the witness stand, Hamed Youssef Hamadi — who was Saddam’s personal secretary at the time — was asked whose handwriting was on the memo. “It looks like President Saddam’s,” he said.
Unruly defendants
Saddam and his seven co-defendants are on trial in the killing of nearly 150 Shiite Muslims in Dujail. If convicted, they could face the death penalty by hanging.
Since the trial began, Saddam and Ibrahim have only dealt with the court with contempt, interrupting it with outbursts, arguments and insults.
Tuesday’s session began in much the same way. Saddam entered and shouted his support for Iraqi insurgents, yelling “Long live the mujahedeen.” Later, during the testimony, he shouted, “I say to all Iraqis fight and liberate your country.”
He argued with Abdel-Rahman, at one point telling the judge, “Hit your own head with that gavel.”
But when the testimony began, Ibrahim addressed the court for nearly a half-hour, giving the first lengthy account by any of the eight defendants about their role in the Dujail crackdown. Ibrahim spoke from the defendants’ pen, and Abdel-Rahman allowed him to speak, largely uninterrupted.
Ibrahim denied any role in the wave of arrests. He said he went to Dujail on the day that gunmen opened fire on Saddam’s motorcade, then returned to the village the following day. He claimed he ordered the release of 80 detainees held at the ruling Baath Party’s headquarters in the town.
“I released all the detainees inside the hall — more than 80 persons. I swear to God I said goodbye to them one by one and apologized,” he said.
He said that on his way to Dujail he remembered hearing a story that former Syrian President Hafez Assad had killed detainees after a failed assassination attempt against him. “This was on my mind, and I told myself that I will not allow anyone even to be slapped,” he told the court.
After those two visits, “I never heard of Dujail ever again. I never got a report on it. It was all handed over to the General Security Services,” a separate agency, Ibrahim told the judge.
In previous sessions, some prosecution witnesses — Dujail residents arrested in the crackdown — have testified that Ibrahim was personally involved in torturing them after they were taken from Dujail to the Baghdad headquarters of the Mukharabat, the feared intelligence agency that Ibrahim headed under Saddam.
One witness testified last month that her interrogators stripped her naked, hung her by her arms and gave her electric shocks. Ibrahim entered the room, ordered her hung by her feet then kicked her three times in the chest, she said.
After hearing testimony from dozens of victims of the crackdown since the trial began on Oct. 19, the prosecution on Monday and Tuesday began calling former members of Saddam’s regime to the witness stand in an attempt to show Saddam’s direct role in the imprisonments in executions.
© 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11302827/
Saddam hospitalized amid hunger strike
Prosecutors say ex-Iraqi leader being tube-fed after 17-day protest
Saddam Hussein was hospitalized Sunday on the 17th day of a hunger strike, the chief prosecutor in his trial said.
Jaafar al-Moussawi said he visited the prison Sunday where Saddam and the seven other co-defendants are held and was told that the ex-president’s health “is unstable because of the hunger strike.”
“We took him to hospital and he is being currently fed by a tube,” al-Moussawi told The Associated Press. He refused to identify the hospital.
Asked if Saddam’s health had improved, al-Moussawi replied: “No, it is not stable yet.”
In response to the report, a U.S. military spokesman said Saddam is well enough to return to court on Monday.
"Right now, we consider that the defendants are in a condition where they can return to court," he said.
Stay tuned to MSNBC.com for more developments on this breaking news story.
© 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/13996125/
Saddam’s trial resumes without him
Ex-Iraqi leader hospitalized, tube-fed on 17th day of hunger strike
BAGHDAD, Iraq - The trial of Saddam Hussein resumed on Monday without the ousted Iraqi leader, who was being fed through a tube on Sunday after 16 days on hunger strike.
Defense lawyers boycotted Monday’s session in protest at what they have said was the court’s refusal to meet their demands for a fair trial as the case nears a verdict that could lead to Saddam’s hanging.
Saddam was not scheduled to appear in court until Wednesday, attorney Jaafar al-Moussawi said.
Al-Moussawi said he visited the prison Sunday where Saddam and the seven other co-defendants are held and was told that the ex-president’s health “is unstable because of the hunger strike.”
“We took him to hospital and he is being currently fed by a tube,” al-Moussawi told The Associated Press. He refused to identify the hospital.
Al-Moussawi initially said Saddam’s condition was “not stable,” but he later said it had been stabilized.
A spokesman for the U.S. detention command confirmed that Saddam was “voluntarily receiving nutrition through a feeding tube” and that his “condition is constantly monitored by medical personnel.”
“His condition is not life-threatening,” Lt. Col. Keir-Kevin Curry said.
“He remains in coalition care and custody, and we’re providing appropriate medical care. He still remains in our care and custody in one of the installations, facilities, per se,” he added.
Protest against court procedures
Saddam, 69, and three others — presumed to be co-defendants Barzan Ibrahim, Taha Yassin Ramadan and Awad al-Bandar — have been refusing food since dinner on July 7 to protest the Iraqi High Tribunal procedures and security for their defense attorneys, three of whom have been slain.
Saddam and the others are charged in a crackdown on Shiites in the town of Dujail following a 1982 assassination attempt against the Iraqi leader.
The hunger strike was launched after the June 21 slaying of Khamis al-Obeidi, the third member of the defense team to be assassinated since the trial began in October. The defense team has blamed Shiite militiamen for al-Obeidi’s death.
Defense calls for security
In a letter to the court, the defense said it wanted U.S. authorities to provide security for the lawyers and their families. It also demanded a 45-day recess to allow it to prepare closing statements and a promise from the court that it would be allowed to take as long as it wishes to present its final arguments.
Court spokesman Raid Juhi said the defense had rejected an offer of the same security precaution given to the judges and prosecution lawyers: Residence inside the Green Zone, the fortified Baghdad neighborhood where the court is located.
Court officials have predicted that verdicts would come in mid-August. Saddam and the other three top defendants could face the death penalty if convicted on the charges.
Saddam also is set to go on trial Aug. 21 for a 1980s crackdown that killed an estimated 100,000 Kurds.
Reuters and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13996125/
Saddam says he was forced into courtroom
Ex-Iraqi leader says that, if convicted, he prefers firing squad to hanging
BAGHDAD, Iraq - A thinner but combative Saddam Hussein appeared in court Wednesday for the first time since his hunger strike and hospitalization, complaining that he had been brought to the chamber against his will and rejecting the tribunal as an agent of the U.S. occupation.
“The Americans insisted that I come against my will. This is not fair,” Saddam told the chief judge.
He also asked the court to execute him by firing squad — “not by hanging as a common criminal” — if it convicts him of all charges and sentences him to death.
As the session began in the U.S.-controlled Green Zone, the ousted president was allowed to make a statement, beginning with a verse from the Quran, in which he challenged the validity and impartiality of the court which could sentence him to death by hanging.
Saddam: 'I am a military man'
Saddam and seven co-defendants have been on trial since Oct. 19 in the killing and torture of Shiites in Dujail following a 1982 assassination attempt against him there. The prosecution has asked for the death penalty for Saddam and two of the seven others.
“I ask you being an Iraqi person that if you reach a verdict of death, execution, remember that I am a military man and should be killed by firing squad and not by hanging as a common criminal,” Saddam said.
Chief Judge Raouf Abdel-Rahman reminded Saddam that the trial was still under way and that the court had not reached a verdict. Executions in Iraq are normally by hanging.
Saddam then repeated a theme he has voiced since the start of the trial — that the panel is an illegal instrument of the American occupation and is unjust.
“If you were a real Iraqi, you would know that your country is going through extraordinary conditions,” Saddam said. “We not only resist this occupation. We do not acknowledge it. We do not acknowledge all the decisions it has made, including appointing the so-called government and this court you represent.”
Chief Judge Raouf Abdel-Rahman interrupted him, telling him “you were not brought here against your will. Here’s the medical report ... and it indicates that you are in good shape.”
“I didn’t say I was ill,” Saddam snapped back. “I was on a hunger strike.”
Saddam last attended the proceedings on June 19 when chief prosecutor Jaafar al-Moussawi asked the court to impose the death penalty on the former ruler for his role in the deaths of Shiite Muslims in Dujail following a 1982 assassination attempt against him.
The hunger strike and the lawyers’ boycott followed last month’s kidnap-slaying of defense attorney Khamis al-Obeidi, the third defense attorney slain since the trial began. The defense has accused Shiite militias for the killing.
Saddam objects to lawyer
During his remarks, Saddam also objected to having a court-appointed attorney deliver the final summation on his behalf. The replacement was appointed after the regular defense team boycotted the proceedings, claiming bias by the court and to press demands for better security for its members.
“Where are your lawyers,” the judge asked. “They’re staying outside in front of the TV screens and inciting violence. Those are lawyers? Having millions of dinars? Listen Saddam Hussein, your lawyers have millions of dinars and are inciting violence.”
As the court-appointed lawyer began to speak, Saddam interrupted him.
“You are my enemy. Who appointed you?” he asked. “I challenge you to read this on your own. He probably didn’t even write this. The American agent, the spy probably wrote this for him.”
During the summation, the court-appointed lawyer, whose identity was kept secret for security reasons, said the documents and witnesses presented by the prosecution did not tie Saddam personally to any killings and torture of the Dujail Shiites.
“Instead they refer to ’Saddam the tyrant,’ ’Saddam the killer’ ... and such references that reflect being written by people who are not impartial,” the lawyer said.
“The documents lack any details when it comes to a specific role for Saddam in Dujail in 1982. There is no proof that when he was president he visited Dujail after the assassination attempt. There’s no proof he was there when the detentions happened,” the lawyer added.
With Saddam, the court has heard six of the eight final summations. After the final one is presented, the court will adjourn to consider a verdict, possibly in mid-August.
Saddam is due to stand trial Aug. 21 in a second case — the bloody crackdown on Iraqi Kurds in the 1980s.
© 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/14035184/
Saddam trial adjourns; verdict set for Oct. 16
Ex-Iraqi leader fails to show up for final session in court
BAGHDAD, Iraq - The trial of Saddam Hussein and seven co-accused for crimes against humanity was adjourned on Thursday until Oct. 16 when a verdict, that can carry the death penalty, is expected to be delivered.
"The court (has) decided to adjourn the session ... until Oct. 16," said chief judge Raouf Abdel Rahman
Saddam was not in court since his summation was presented Wednesday by a court-appointed attorney because the defense team has boycotted the trial since last month to protest the killing of lawyer Khamis al-Obeidi. He was the third defense lawyer slain since the trial began in October.
The prosecution has asked for the death penalty for Saddam and two of the other seven defendants for their roles in the deaths of Shiites in a crackdown following a 1982 assassination attempt against the Iraqi ruler in Dujail.
Ramadan objects to lawyer
The session opened with former Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan saying he rejects his court-appointed lawyer. Chief Judge Raouf Abdel-Rahman said he could present his own summation.
“I refuse these procedures and I will not present my own defense,” Ramadan told the judge. “I do not know who this lawyer is, or his name.”
Ramadan said he could produce “1,000 people from Dujail” to testify that “they never saw me there.” He also complained that the government had done little to find the killers of the defense lawyers, adding that “if I left prison now, I could find the killers in five minutes.”
The judge accused the boycotting attorneys of taking money from their clients and not defending them.
“They’re sitting abroad now generating fame by issuing political statements on television stations as if this case is a political one. This behavior will harm you, the defendants. This is a criminal case, not a political one,” Abdel-Rahman said.
The other defendant due to present a summation was Anwar al-Bandar, who presided over the revolutionary court that sentenced Shiites in Dujail to death or imprisonment in the crackdown.
After the summations are complete, the five-judge panel will adjourn to consider a verdict. That could come as early as mid-August, but an American legal expert who has been advising the court said it was more likely in the fall.
Another trial looms for Saddam
Saddam is due to stand trial Aug. 21 in the bloody suppression of Iraqi Kurds in the 1980s.
Following Wednesday’s session, Michael A. Newton, an associate professor of law at Vanderbilt University law school, praised the performance of Saddam’s court-appointed lawyer, saying his argument “was solid and based on law.”
“The (defense) attorney yesterday gave the best argument that could be made based on the evidence and the law and that is the essence of a fair trial,” said Newton, who said he trained all the Iraqi High Tribunal judges and lawyers.
Speaking to reporters at the court Thursday before the beginning of the trial, Newton described the lawyers as “courageous” and said their roles ensured “the due process of a fair trial.”
He criticized Saddam’s original defense team for boycotting the proceedings, saying they “have an ethical duty to be in court and to be prepared to represent their clients and I believe they abandoned their ethical duty.”
“They should be ashamed for abandoning their ethical duty to come to court and argue on behalf of their client.”
© 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/14053291/
Very interesting news about Hussein eh!
I'm wondering if Sadam Hussein finally will be condenned to death or will be in the jail for the rest of his days.
Very interesting news about Hussein eh!
I'm wondering if Sadam Hussein finally will be condenned to death or will be in the jail for the rest of his days.
Who knows. :dunno:
Perhaps he'll be condenned to death, it's the probably thing can happen.
Saddam ejected from courtroom
Iraqi ex-leader’s lawyers boycott trial, claiming violations
BAGHDAD, Iraq - The chief judge in Saddam Hussein's genocide trial threw the ex-president out of the courtroom Monday in a stormy session boycotted by the former ruler's defense team.
"I have a request here that I don't want to be in this cage any more" Saddam said, referring to the court. He waved a yellow paper before he spoke to chief judge Mohammed Oreibi al-Khalifa.
Al-Khalifa snapped back: "I'm the presiding judge. I decide about your presence here. Get him out!", pointing to guards to take Saddam out.
You need to show respect to the court and the case, and those who don't show it, I'm sorry, but I have to apply the law," the judge said.
The exchange began when Sabri al-Douri, director of military intelligence under Saddam, referred to a fellow co-defendant, Sultan Hashim Ahmad al-Tai, by his former rank of lieutenant general.
The judge then said that the defendants could not be referred to by their former rank.
An angry Saddam then insisted that he be allowed to leave and the judge ordered him out of the courtroom.
Saddam and six co-defendants have been on trial since Aug. 21 for their roles in a crackdown against Kurdish guerrillas in the late 1980s. The prosecution says about 180,000 people, mostly civilians, died in the crackdown, codenamed Operation Anfal.
Defense lawyer boycott
The Monday session got off to a rough start when Saddam's defense attorneys followed through on their threat to boycott the proceedings to protest the replacement of the chief judge and other alleged irregularities.
Several other lawyers representing other defendants were also absent when the session began. The judge appointed replacement lawyers so the trial could proceed.
Al-Douri and another defendant, former intelligence official Farhan Mutlak Saleh, complained to the judge that they did not accept their court-appointed attorneys.
"Did I dismiss your attorney?" the judge asked "He just walked out!"
The judge told Saleh that he would be given time with his court-appointed attorney to plan a defense.
Saleh said: "Good, that's all I ask."
In announcing the boycott, Khalil al-Dulaimi, Saddam's chief lawyer, complained that last week's decision to replace chief judge Abdullah al-Amiri violated judicial rules.
Al-Dulaimi also protested the court's refusal to hear non-Iraqi lawyers and its demand that foreign attorneys seek permission to enter the courtroom.
Among Saddam's nine lawyers are a Jordanian, a Spaniard, a Frenchman and two Americans, including former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark.
Kurd testifies on gas attack
Al-Khalifa opened the session by calling an elderly Kurdish man to take the witness stand.
Mohammed Rasul Mustafa, 65, sporting the traditional Kurdish headdress, said he witnessed the bombing of the northern Sawisaynan village, from his own northern Kurdish village, which was an hour's walk away.
"I saw the smoke cover the village with my own eyes," Mustafa recalled the late 1980s attack.
He said that as he traveled toward the village, he smelled a strange odor which was like "apples." The man said he turned around and fled the area along with village residents and those from other nearby towns.
Mustafa said that when he returned home, he felt short of breath because of his alleged exposure to the gas.
Eventually Mustafa and his family were captured and held in a prison before being transferred to the southern Nugrat Salman detention camp.
"For the first three days of our arrival we were without food and water, then we received salty water and (prison) bread," Mustafa said.
During his five-month imprisonment, Mustafa said he saw guards "kill a man with a steel cable" and that at up to 500 people died, most of them elderly. He did not elaborate.
The court appointed defense attorney for al-Tai, a former defense minister, asked the witness how the other 3,000 to 4,000 prisoners in Nugrat Salman jail escaped chemical weapons.
But al-Tai abruptly stood up and said: "I don't acknowledge this attorney. He does not represent me." The judge told al-Tai to sit down and be quiet.
© 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14995322/
Saddam ejected from court for 2nd day in a row
Iraq's former leader ignores judge's warning against interrupting, speeches
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Saddam Hussein was ejected from his genocide trial for the second consecutive day following heated arguments with the chief judge Tuesday.
Saddam’s former defense minister, Sultan Hashim Ahmad al-Tai, was ejected for shouting at judge Mohammed Oreibi al-Khalifa for throwing out the deposed leader.
The trial resumed after an hour without Saddam and all six of his co-defendants.
The outburst began when Saddam refused to remain silent after repeated requests by al-Khalifa, the head of the five-member judges’ panel.
Saddam, clutching his Muslim holy book — the Quran — tried to make a statement, interrupting the prosecution’s questioning of a witness.
“You are a defendant and I’m the judge,” al-Khalifa said, telling Saddam to sit down. Saddam refused and continued talking even though the judge shut off court microphones.
Saddam’s six co-defendants then began to shout.
“Shut up, no one may speak!” al-Khalifa shouted, pointing his finger at the defendant.
“The court decided to eject Saddam Hussein from the courtroom,” al-Khalifa added.
Saddam left with a smile.
'I’m not sitting down!'
The other defendants stood up in protest and demanded they leave too, but the judge refused. It was not immediately clear why the defendants who had not been ejected were absent when the trial resumed.
Al-Tai, a defense minister under Saddam and one of six co-defendants in the trial, was the most vocal, shouting insults at al-Khalifa.
“I’m not sitting down!” shouted al-Tai, pointing his finger at the judge. “I served in the army for 44 years and no one dared to shout at me. We are polite and well behaved.”
Al-Khalifa growled: “You won’t leave, but you can remain standing, if you wish.”
But an enraged al-Tai kept shouting at the judge.
“We decided to eject Sultan Hashim from the courtroom!” al-Khalifa yelled.
After Al-Khalifa ordered a one-hour recess, a curtain was abruptly closed on journalists and microphones were cut off in the courtroom.
Saddam and his co-defendants have been on trial since Aug. 21 for their roles in a 1987-1988 crackdown on Kurdish rebels.
The prosecution says about 180,000 people, mostly civilians, died in the military offensive — code-named Operation Anfal — which allegedly included the use of chemical weapons. The defendants could face the death penalty if convicted.
Saddam rebuked
In an earlier exchange Tuesday, al-Khalifa warned Saddam to respect court procedures, saying that he would be given opportunity to speak, but that he would not be permitted to mock the proceedings.
“You are a defendant here. You have rights and obligations,” al-Khalifa told Saddam. “This is a court — not a political forum.”
He told Saddam to limit his comments to matters pertinent to the trial and that he must rise to address the tribunal — “not to speak while sitting down.”
“I won’t tolerate that,” the judge said, emphasizing that the defendants must respect the court.
“The truth will be revealed, through the court to the whole world, if you are innocent or guilty,” he added.
But “by mocking the court and matters related to the court, you are only harming yourself and damaging your case,” al-Khalifa said.
Saddam asked for permission to respond. When al-Khalifa agreed, the deposed Iraqi leader took out a piece of paper — apparently to read a prepared statement.
But the judge interrupted, saying he would not allow him to read it “if it was the same letter I received from you.”
Saddam ignored the call. The judge allowed him to read the statement — standing up — for 20 minutes, but cut off microphones in the courtroom.
On Monday, Saddam was thrown out of the courtroom after he protested the court’s appointment of lawyers replacing his own.
Saddam’s defense team boycotted proceedings after accusing the court of violating judicial procedures. Al-Khalifa appointed replacement lawyers so the hearings could continue.
Copyright 2006 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15008067/
Brother-in-law of Saddam trial judge shot dead
Attack aimed at intimidating U.S.- led court? Or more sectarian violence
BAGHDAD, Iraq - The brother-in-law of the new judge presiding over Saddam Hussein’s genocide trial was killed and his nephew was wounded in a shooting Friday in Baghdad, the latest deadly violence linked to proceedings against the former Iraqi leader.
Kadhim Abdul-Hussein was fatally shot, and his son, Karrar, was wounded in the capital’s western Ghazaliyah neighborhood by unidentified assailants, police 1st Lt. Thaer Mahmoud said.
It was not immediately clear whether they were targeted because they were related to Judge Mohammed Oreibi al-Khalifa, a Shiite Muslim who took over the Saddam trial last week, or if it was another of the sectarian attacks that have been plaguing Baghdad.
During Saddam’s first trial, three defense lawyers were killed, and in July, Saddam and three other defendants refused food to protest lack of security for lawyers and conduct of the trial.
Friday’s attack in the predominantly Sunni neighborhood of Ghazaliyah came a half-hour before the weekly ban on vehicular traffic in the capital that has been instituted to try to prevent suicide bombings on the Muslim holy day.
Judge just recently appointed
Al-Khalifa had been deputy to the original chief judge in the trial, Abdullah al-Amiri, who was removed on accusations he was too soft on Saddam. Among other things, al-Amiri had angered Kurdish politicians by declaring in court that Saddam was “not a dictator.”
Saddam’s nine lawyers walked out of the trial Monday to boycott the proceedings in protest of al-Amiri’s removal.
Al-Khalifa later adjourned the trial until Oct. 9, saying he wanted to give the defendants time to persuade their original lawyers to end the boycott, or to confer with new attorneys.
The trial, Saddam’s second, began Aug. 21. He and six co-defendants face genocide charges for their roles in a bloody crackdown against Kurdish rebels in the late 1980s.
The defendants could face the death penalty if convicted.
© 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/15058193/
can't believe what's going on in that country:dunno:
Saddam Hussein is thrown out of court
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Saddam Hussein and a co-defendant were thrown out of court Tuesday after the former leader began to shout during his trial on charges of genocide against Iraq's Kurdish population.
Saddam interrupted the proceedings by shouting a verse from the Quran.
"Fight them and God will punish them!" he yelled.
The chief judge, Mohammed Oreibi al-Khalifa, cut off the microphone and instructed bailiffs to escort the ex-president out of the courtroom.
Co-defendant Hussein Rashid Mohammed them stood up and shouted insults at the prosecutors. When a bailiff forced the defendant back into his chair, the former army commander threw a punch.
The judge had Mohammed thrown out and closed the session to the media.
Before the closure, the judge told Saddam's six co-defendants that he had been patient with them, but they were obstructing the trial.
"I allowed you to say what you want, but you've been making problems," he said solemnly.
Court-appointed lawyers represented Saddam and his co-defendants.
The lawyers chosen by Saddam and his co-defendants are boycotting the trial to protest the dismissal of the first chief judge, and the court's refusal to allow the defense time to examine thousands of documents.
The court on Monday heard testimony about burying prisoners alive and sexually abusing female detainees.
Saddam and his six co-defendants have been on trial since Aug. 21 for their roles in a bloody 1987-88 crackdown against Kurdish rebels. Saddam and his cousin "Chemical" Ali al-Majid are charged with genocide, and the others are accused of various war crimes offenses. All could face death by hanging if convicted.
The defendants are represented by court-appointed lawyers because their own attorneys have boycotted proceedings since Sept. 24. They are protesting the dismissal of the first chief judge, who was seen as soft on Saddam, and the court's refusal to allow the defense time to examine thousands of documents.
In Tuesday's hearing, the court heard a Kurdish woman, who testified from behind a curtain to conceal her identity, recount that women were raped and children died in detention during the 1988 campaign.
Upon her request, the chief judge cut off the microphones after she was asked if she knew of any cases of pregnancy and abortion in her detention camp.
Reporters in court said they heard a brief part of her testimony in which she said she saw wardens in the detention camp take women away at night, apparently to rape them. No other details were immediately available.
The woman, who spent 6 1/2 months in detention, also claimed that Saddam's forces used chemicals against the detainees.
"One evening, men walked into our detention hall, wearing (chemical) suits and masks and sprayed us with a material that caused the spread of lice and other diseases, like bronchial coughing," she said in Kurdish through an Arabic interpreter.
"Many children died as a result," said the woman.
The witness also testified that pregnant women were treated inhumanely. She said one woman had given birth in a toilet. Fellow detainees helped her "cut the umbilical cord with broken glass and the baby was wrapped in a grain sack."
She said all her family members disappeared in 1988 and are presumed dead.
___
Bushra Juhi reported from Baghdad and Jamal Halaby from Amman, Jordan. Some material in this story came from a pool report at the trial in Baghdad.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061010/ap_on_re_mi_ea/saddam_trial;_ylt=AqsV4e.oazbpQgh0hkkU2mSs0NUE;_yl u=X3oDMTA3b3JuZGZhBHNlYwM3MjE-
Official: Saddam verdict to be read on Nov. 5
If found guilty, ex-Iraqi leader, co-defendants to be sentenced same day
BAGHDAD, Iraq - A verdict against Saddam Hussein and seven co-defendants charged with crimes against humanity in connection with an anti-Shiite crackdown in the 1980s will be announced Nov. 5, a senior court official said on Monday.
Sentences for those found guilty will be issued the same day, chief investigating judge Raid Juhi told The Associated Press.
The former Iraqi leader could be hanged if convicted. However, he could appeal the sentence to a higher, nine-judge court. His co-defendants include his former deputy, Taha Yassin Ramadan, and his half brother and former intelligence chief Barzan Ibrahim.
The trial began a year ago with the eight defendants facing charges arising from the deaths of nearly 150 Shiites from the town of Dujail after a 1982 assassination attempt against Saddam in the town north of Baghdad.
That trial adjourned July 27 to allow its five-judge panel to consider a verdict. The court was to have reconvened Monday to hear a verdict.
"The Dujail trial will resume Nov. 5 when the presiding judge will announce the verdict and the sentencing," Juhi said.
Saddam is the chief defendant in another trial, facing genocide charges in connection with a government crackdown in the 1980s against Iraqi Kurds. The prosecution alleges about 180,000 people died in that campaign.
Saddam, his cousin "Chemical" Ali al-Majid and five other co-defendants could face death by hanging if convicted.
Hearings in the second trial will resume Tuesday.
© 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/15285264/
Saddam prosecutor’s brother shot dead in Iraq
Gunmen ambush kin in front of his wife; Saddam verdict to be read Nov.
BAGHDAD, Iraq - The brother of the chief prosecutor in Saddam Hussein’s second trial was shot dead in front of his wife at his home in the capital Monday, according to a key official charged insuring no former members of the Saddam regime hold positions of authority.
Imad al-Faroon died immediately after the shooting at his home in west Baghdad, Dr. Ali al-Lami, head of the government De-Baathification Committee, told The Associated Press.
Al-Faroon’s brother is chief prosecutor Muqith al-Faroon, who is leading the Saddam prosecution on charges of crimes against humanity in his alleged killing of thousands of Kurds during the Iran-Iraq war.
Hanging?
Meanwhile, a senior court official said a verdict against Saddam Hussein and seven co-defendants charged with crimes against humanity in connection with an anti-Shiite crackdown in the 1980s will be announced Nov. 5.
The former Iraqi leader could be hanged if convicted. However, he could appeal the sentence to a higher, nine-judge court. His co-defendants include his former deputy, Taha Yassin Ramadan, and his half brother and former intelligence chief Barzan Ibrahim.
The trial began a year ago with the eight defendants facing charges arising from the deaths of nearly 150 Shiites from the town of Dujail after a 1982 assassination attempt against Saddam in the town north of Baghdad.
That trial adjourned July 27 to allow its five-judge panel to consider a verdict. The court was to have reconvened Monday to hear a verdict.
"The Dujail trial will resume Nov. 5 when the presiding judge will announce the verdict and the sentencing," Juhi said.
Saddam is the chief defendant in another trial, facing genocide charges in connection with a government crackdown in the 1980s against Iraqi Kurds. The prosecution alleges about 180,000 people died in that campaign.
Saddam, his cousin "Chemical" Ali al-Majid and five other co-defendants could face death by hanging if convicted.
Hearings in the second trial will resume Tuesday.
© 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/15285264
Baghdad clamps down ahead of Saddam verdict
Curfew to be in place in capital, 3 provinces amid fears of a Sunni backlash
BAGHDAD, Iraq - U.S. and Iraqi forces drastically tightened security across Baghdad on Friday in advance of Sunday’s expected guilty verdict against Saddam Hussein, and the Iraqi prime minister said he hoped the ousted dictator will “get what he deserves.”
Saddam has been on trial for murder and crimes against humanity and, if convicted, could be sentenced to death by hanging. Violence is already running high, with police finding the bodies of 87 torture victims throughout the capital between 6 a.m. Thursday and 6 p.m. Friday.
A verdict is expected to set off further bloodshed, underscoring the trial’s failure to bring reconciliation to a country fractured ever deeper along sectarian lines.
“We hope that the verdict will give this man what he deserves for the crimes he committed against the Iraqi people,” said Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who has declared he hoped Saddam would be hanged.
“The Iraqi people will express their happiness in a way they see fit and we will call on the Iraqi people through a broadcast statement to remain calm and express their happiness in an appropriate way in this current situation, in a way that does not risk their lives,” the Shiite prime minister said after a meeting with tribal leaders from the restive southern city of Amarah.
Cars, people barred from streets
An aide to al-Maliki said authorities are imposing a 12-hour curfew on Baghdad and three surrounding provinces starting at 6 a.m. Sunday. Not just cars, but people will be barred from the streets. Baghdad’s airport also will be closed.
The curfew will cover all of Baghdad province, Salahuddin province, which includes Saddam’s hometown of Tikrit, and the Sunni insurgent hotbeds of Diyala and Anbar provinces.
Leave for all military personnel has been canceled indefinitely and vacationing soldiers recalled to active duty.
New checkpoints sprang up around main roads, including within the heavily fortified Green Zone that houses Iraqi government offices and the U.S. and British embassies. Larger than usual numbers of policemen and U.S. troops patrolled city streets, while U.S. Army Stryker armored vehicles blocked traffic on both sides of the al-Jumhuriyah Bridge, one of the capital’s most heavily guarded because it carries traffic past the Green Zone.
“We received orders to tighten security measures and to use any available policemen to tighten the security,” police Lt. Ali Abbas said.
Any violence would be met with a stern response, said a spokesman for the Interior Ministry, which commands the police.
“We warn anyone who intends to exploit this event that our response will be tough and severe,” police Brig. Abdul-Karim Khalaf told The Associated Press without elaborating.
Many of Saddam’s fellow Sunni Arabs are predicting a firestorm if the ex-president is sentenced to death. On the other hand, majority Shiites, who were persecuted under Saddam but now dominate the government, are likely to be enraged if he escapes the gallows.
Setting the tone, al-Maliki said last month that a conviction for Saddam would help break the will of the former dictator’s followers in the largely Sunni Arab-led insurgency.
Saddam on trial for Shiite deaths
Saddam and seven co-defendants — including a half brother — have been on trial since Oct. 19, 2005, for their alleged roles in the deaths of about 150 Shiites in the town of Dujail after an assassination attempt against the president in 1982.
A second trial against Saddam — for alleged genocide against the Kurds — began in August and more charges are expected to follow. It is unclear whether those cases would move forward if Saddam is condemned to hang.
On Wednesday, one of Saddam’s lawyers said a death sentence would “open the gates of hell” to the roughly 140,000 U.S. troops in Iraq.
Bushra al-Khalil, a Lebanese lawyer who was thrown out of Saddam’s trial in May, also accused President Bush of exploiting the verdict — which comes two days before hotly contested U.S. Congressional elections — for “electoral purposes.”
In a letter addressed to the presiding judge, Saddam’s 10-member defense team, including former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, wrote that it would be premature to deliver the verdict on Sunday “because the court did not receive the final defense statements yet.” It was not possible to confirm that the judges had received the letter.
Among those killed in violence Friday was Ahmed al-Rasheed, a correspondent for the privately-owned Sharqiya channel. The station said he was the third employee to be killed since the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq.
With al-Rasheed’s death, at least 88 journalists have been killed in Iraq since hostilities began in March 2003 — including 28 this year — according to an Associated Press count based on statistics kept by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.
© 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/15547137/
Saddam sentenced to death by hanging
Shiites, Kurds celebrate upon hearing court's guilty verdict
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraq's High Tribunal on Sunday found Saddam Hussein guilty of crimes against humanity and sentenced him to hang for the 1982 killing of 148 Shiites in the city of Dujail. The visibly shaken former leader shouted "God is great!"
Saddam's half brother and former intelligence chief Barzan Ibrahim, and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, head of the former Revolutionary Court, were sentenced to join Saddam on the gallows for the Dujail killings after an unsuccessful assassination attempt during a Saddam visit to the city 35 miles north of Baghdad.
The death sentences automatically go to a nine-judge appeals panel which as unlimited time to review the case. If the verdicts and sentences are upheld, the executions must be carried out within 30 days.
Chief prosecutor Jaafar al-Moussawi told reporters that the Anfal trial now in progress for Saddam and others alleged role in gassing and killing Kurds would continue while the appeals process is underway. But if the appellate judges uphold the death sentence, the Anfal proceedings and other cases would be halted and Saddam hanged.
Al-Moussawi said Saddam would be hanged if the sentence were upheld, despite his demand that he be shot by a firing squad.
A court official told The Associated Press that the appeals process was likely to take three to four weeks once the formal paperwork was submitted.
Clashes, celebrations
Clashes immediately broke out in north Baghdad's heavily Sunni Azamiyah district where police were battling men with machine guns. At least seven mortar shells slammed to earth around the Abu Hanifa mosque, the holiest Sunni shrine in the capital. There was no immediate word on casualties.
Celebratory gunfire rang out elsewhere in Baghdad, and the people in Sadr City, the capital's Shiite slum, celebrated in the streets, calling out "Where are you Saddam? We want to fight you."
Breathing heavily as he ran along the streets, 35-year-old Abu Sinan said, "This is an unprecedented feeling of happiness...nothing matches it, no festival nor marriage nor birth matches it. The verdict says Saddam must pay the price for murdering tens of thousands of Iraqis."
A jubilant crowd of young men carried pictures of radical anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and handed out candy to children.
In Tikrit, Saddam's hometown, 1,000 people defied the curfew and carried pictures of the city's favorite son through the streets.
Some declared the court a product of the U.S. "occupation forces" and decried the verdict.
"By our souls, by our blood we sacrifice for you Saddam" and "Saddam your name shakes America."
People were celebrating in the streets of Dujail, a Tigris River city of 84,000, as the verdict was read. They burned pictures of their former tormentor.
Celebratory gunfire also rang out in Kurdish neighborhoods across the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, where taxi driver Khatab Ahmed sat on a mattress in his living room to watch trial coverage with his wife and six children.
"Thank God I lived to see the day when the criminals received their punishment," the 40-year-old exclaimed on hearing of Saddam's death sentence.
His brother and uncle were arrested by Saddam's security forces in the 1980s and disappeared forever. Two cousins died in a 1991 Kurdish uprising.
'An opportunity to unite'
The United States Embassy immediately issued a statement under the name of Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, who said the verdicts "demonstrate the commitment of the Iraqi people to hold them (Saddam and his co-defendants) accountable."
"Although the Iraqis may face difficult days in the coming weeks, closing the book on Saddam and his regime is an opportunity to unite and build a better future," Khalilzad said.
Saddam's chief lawyer Khalil al-Dulaim told AP his client called on Iraqis to reject the sectarian violence ripping the country apart and to "not take revenge" on U.S. invaders.
"The message from President Saddam to his people came during a meeting in Baghdad this morning, just before the so-called Iraqi court issued its verdict in his trial," al-Dulaimi said.
After the verdict was read, a trembling Saddam yelled out, "Long live the people, and death to their enemies. Long live the glorious nation, and death to its enemies!"
He initially refused Chief Judge Raouf Adbul-Rahman's order to rise to hear the verdict and sentence. Two bailiffs lifted Saddam to his feet, and he remained standing but turned to one guard, telling him to stop twisting his arm.
Former Vice President and Saddam deputy Taha Yassin Ramadan was sentence to life in prison.
Three defendants were sentenced to 15 years in prison for torture and premeditated murder. Abdullah Kazim Ruwayyid and his son Mizhar Abdullah Ruwayyid were party officials Dujail, along with Ali Dayih Ali. They were believed responsible for the Dujail arrests.
Mohammed Azawi Ali, a former Dujail Baath Party official, was acquitted for lack of evidence and immediately freed.
Before the trial began, one of Saddam's lawyers, former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, was ejected from the courtroom after handing the judge a memorandum in which he called the Saddam trial a "travesty."
Abdul-Rahman pointed to Clark and said in English, "Get out."
'A lot of incriminating evidence'
The trial proceedings were shown on Iraqi and pan-Arab satellite television channels with a 20-minute delay. Ahead of the verdicts, several channels aired documentaries about Saddam's crackdowns on Kurds and Shiites. They also aired videotape of mass graves being uncovered after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
Al-Masai television, run by the prominent Shiite Dawa party, played solemn music as it scrolled through snapshots of Iraqis who went missing under Saddam's 23-year rule.
Another Shiite channel, al-Furat, aired archive footage of Saddam from the 1980s proclaiming, "Everyone stands against the revolution, whether they are 100 or 2,000 or 10,000, I will chop their heads off and this doesn't shake a hair of me at all."
U.S. officials associated with the tribunal said Saddam's repeated courtroom outbursts during the nine-month trial may have played a key part in his conviction.
They cited his admission in a March 1 hearing that he had ordered the trial of 148 Shiites who were eventually executed, insisting that doing so was legal because they were suspected in an assassination attempt against him. "Where is the crime? Where is the crime?" he asked, standing before the panel of five judges.
Later in the same session, he argued that his co-defendants must be released and that because he was in charge, he alone must be tried. His outburst came a day after the prosecution presented a presidential decree with a signature they said was Saddam's approving death sentences for the 148 Shiites, their most direct evidence against him.
About 50 of those sentenced by "The Revolutionary Court" died during interrogation before they could go to the gallows. Some of those hanged were juveniles.
"Every time they (defendants) rose and spoke, they provided a lot of incriminating evidence," said one of the U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject. "Saddam thought he had all the right answers, when in fact he was helping the court establish "command responsibility."
Under Saddam, Iraq's large bureaucracy showed consistent tendency to document government orders, policies and minutes of meetings. That, according to the U.S. officials, helped the prosecution produce more than 30 documents that clearly established the chair of command under Saddam an in relations to the campaign against residents of Dujail.
One document gave the names of every one from Dujail banished to a desert detention camp in southern Iraq. Another, prepared by a close Saddam aide, gave the president a blow by blow account of the punitive measures taken against the people of Dujail following the failed attempt on Saddam's life.
Saddam's trial had from the outset appeared to reflect the turmoil and violence prevailing in Iraq since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion toppled the former president.
One of Saddam's lawyers was assassinated the day after the trial's opening session on Oct. 19, last year. Two more were later assassinated and a fourth one fled the country.
In January, chief judge Rizgar Amin, a Kurd, resigned after complaints by Shiite politicians that he had failed to keep control of court proceedings. He, in turn, complained of political interference in the trial. Another Kurd, Raouf Abdul-Rahman, replaced Amin.
Hearings were frequently disrupted by outbursts from Saddam and Ibrahim, with the two raging against what they said was the illegitimacy of the court, their bad treatment in the U.S.-run facility where they are being held and the lack of protection of their defense attorneys.
The defense lawyers contributed to the chaos in the courtroom by staging several boycotts.
© 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15567363/?GT1=8717
I'm a bit sickened by the whole thing. There's no doubt he is guilty and deserves severe punishment, but hanging? In this day and age? Lock him up for the rest of his natural life, deny him his freedom and any chance to communicate with his supporters.
This is just my opinion but what will hanging him gain? How much upset will that cause and how many more innocent people will lose their lives as a result of it? I know it is Iraqi law and that the US aren't responsible for this, but I'm slightly concerned at how many leaders and politicians are in support. Would they personally be prepared to do the deed? Sorry, I just don't agree with capital punishment in any way.
I would rather see him rot in prison too.
FinnFreak
11-06-2006, 3:28am
Personally, I'm amazed he has survived this long.
And I don't agree with the death sentence either.
Since it was international forces that overthrew his reign, the trial should have been held in an international court, under international law.
He shouldn't be allowed to get away with it so easily. But of course, he will now be silenced for good (and that's what many are counting on).
John - :mad:
FinnFreak
11-06-2006, 4:57am
STT - 6.11.2006
Reacting to Saddam verdict, Finland recalls EU's position on death penalty
Finland, the country holding the rotating presidency of the European Union, said in a statement noting the death sentence read to Saddam Hussein on Sunday that bringing to justice those responsible for the crimes committed by Iraq's former regime would help further national reconciliation and dialogue in Iraq.
A US-sponsored court on Sunday sentenced the deposed Iraqi leader to death by hanging for crimes against humanity in the Dujail case.
"The nature of the crimes as well as the necessity of national reconciliation mean that all the trials have to be conducted respecting all the requirements for a fair process," the statement said.
But the common foreign and security policy statement also recalled the EU's longstanding position against the death penalty.
"The EU opposes capital punishment in all cases and under all circumstances and it should not be carried out in this case either."
John - :mad:
I don't agree about death penalty, it'd be the best to watch him jailed on a prision for the rest of his days. In this way, the condene will be worth it, and he will be suffering about all he did in his country. But well, you never knows what they can dictaminate:dunno:
Rights group: Saddam verdict ‘questionable’
U.S.-based Human Rights Watch says Iraqi court was ill-equipped for case
NEW YORK - Human Rights Watch said Monday that the trial of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was not carried out fairly, calling the verdict “questionable” and saying the Iraqi court was not equipped to handle such a complex case.
The 97-page report, based on observation of the trial and interviews with court officials, lawyers and other key parties in the tribunal, found “serious procedural flaws” in the Iraqi High Tribunal’s handling of the trial.
On Nov. 5, the court sentenced Saddam and two other senior members of his regime to death by hanging for ordering the execution of nearly 150 Shiite Muslims from the Iraqi city of Dujail following a 1982 attempt on Saddam’s life.
The Iraqi court was created in 2003 after the U.S. invasion to prosecute cases of human rights violations in Iraq.
The U.S.-based rights group said the court had shortcomings in the timely disclosure of incriminating evidence, that the defendants were not allowed to properly confront witnesses, and that the judges at times did not maintain an impartial demeanor.
“The court’s conduct, as documented in this report, reflects a basic lack of understanding of fundamental fair trial principles, and how to uphold them in the conduct of a relatively complex trial,” the report said. “The result is a trial that did not meet key fair trial standards. Under such circumstances, the soundness of the verdict is questionable.”
Death penalty ‘indefensible’
The group, which is against the death penalty in general, also said the death sentence against Saddam is “an inherently cruel and inhumane punishment,” and “in the wake of an unfair trial is indefensible.”
An appeals court is expected to rule on the verdict and death sentence by mid-January. Saddam’s defense team must present an appeal to a higher, nine-judge panel by Dec. 5.
Last week, Saddam’s lawyer complained that the court was ignoring his requests for documents to appeal the guilty verdict. There was no immediate comment from Iraqi court officials.
“The verdict against President Saddam Hussein is purely political and all the conditions of a fair trial — as stipulated under international law — have been gravely violated, including the right to appeal the verdict in a court of cassation,” Saddam’s chief lawyer Khalil al-Dulaimi said in a written statement.
© 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15811676/
Thanks for the re-up-date.;) It's very interesting.
Saddam’s trial for genocide resumes
Already sentenced to death, ex-Iraqi leader charged with killing Kurds
BAGHDAD - Saddam Hussein and six of his former commanders returned to a Baghdad court on Monday to face charges of crimes against humanity over a military campaign against ethnic Kurds in the late 1980s.
Iraq’s former dictator, who has already received the death penalty in another trial for his role in the killings of 148 Shiite villagers after he escaped assassination in 1982, was last in court on Nov. 8.
Some lawyers in the defense team were present in the session, but Saddam’s chief lawyer Khalil al-Dulaimi was absent. The defense has boycotted recent sessions in this trial.
Prosecutors say the 1988 Anfal -- Spoils of War -- campaign against Kurds included widespread use of chemical weapons, killed more than 180,000 people and destroyed hundreds of villages. Saddam and one other defendant face the most serious charge of genocide.
Chief prosecutor Munqith al-Faroon told Reuters on Sunday that he had an audiotape and documents proving Saddam himself ordered the gassing in northern Iraq.
Copyright 2006 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15916408/
Saddam’s lawyers appeal his death sentence
Former dictator’s lawyers allege court delayed process
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Saddam Hussein’s lawyers on Sunday formally appealed the death sentence against their client for the killing of 148 Shiites, a court spokesman said.
Five Iraqi judges sentenced Saddam and two other senior members of his regime to death by hanging on Nov. 5 for the killings in the town of Dujail, north of Baghdad, following a 1982 attempt there on the life of the ousted leader.
Under Iraqi law, death sentences are automatically appealed before a higher court within 10 days of their passage. But defense lawyers must file a formal appeal within 30 days, detailing the legal grounds for their action and presenting new evidence that could support their clients’ claims of innocence. The lawyers could also make a plea for leniency.
Today, defense lawyers came to the court and filed an appeal against the death sentence passed against Saddam Hussein and other sentences in the Dujail case,” Iraqi High Tribunal spokesman Raid Juhi told The Associated Press.
Lawyers allege court thwarted appeal
Saddam’s chief lawyer, Khalil al-Dulaimi, said two lawyers on the defense team had submitted the papers. He complained that defense lawyers had not received copies of the verdict until Nov. 23, delaying the appeal process.
“Finally we were able to do it,” al-Dulaimi said. “We had to hastily prepare the appeal because the court procrastinated in giving us the documents necessary for the submission in a bid to obstruct the appeal process.”
Also sentenced to death by hanging was Barzan Ibrahim, Saddam’s half brother and Iraq’s former intelligence chief, and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, who was head of Iraq’s Revolutionary Court when it condemned the Dujail residents to death following the assassination attempt.
Iraq’s former Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan was convicted of premeditated murder and sentenced to life in prison.
Three defendants were given up to 15 years in prison for torture and premeditated murder. The three — Abdullah Kazim Ruwayyid, Mizhar Abdullah Ruwayyid and Ali Dayih Ali — were party officials in Dujail who were believed responsible for the mass arrests.
A local Baath Party official, Mohammed Azawi Ali, was acquitted for lack of evidence
Trio could be hanged by January
The nine-judge, higher court does not have a time limit for ruling on the appeal. But the death sentences passed against Saddam, Ibrahim and al-Bandar must be carried out within a maximum of 30 days from the day they are upheld by the higher court.
If the appeals court upholds the sentences, all three members of Iraq’s Presidential Council — President Jalal Talabani and Vice Presidents Tariq al-Hashimi and Adil Abdul-Mahdi — must sign death warrants before executions can be carried out.
Jaafar Moussawi, the chief prosecutor in the Dujail case, said in November that the trio could be hanged by the middle of January.
Saddam is being tried separately on charged of genocide linked to a military campaign in the 1980s against Iraq’s minority Kurds in which tens of thousands of people are thought to have been killed. If convicted in that trial, the former leader could receive a second death sentence.
© 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16022016/
Police: Saddam’s nephew escaped from prison
Man serving life sentence in Iraq for making bombs for insurgency
BAGHDAD, Iraq - A nephew of Saddam Hussein serving a life sentence for making bombs for Iraq’s insurgency escaped from prison Saturday in northern Iraq, authorities said.
Ayman Sabawi, the son of Saddam’s half brother Sabawi Ibrahim Hassan al-Tikriti, fled the prison some 45 miles west of Mosul in the afternoon with the help of a police officer, according to local police Brig. Abdul Karim al-Jubouri.
Interior Ministry spokesman Brig. Abdul-Karim Khalaf confirmed the escape but declined to elaborate.
Sabawi was convicted of illegally crossing the border from Syria and sentenced to 15 years in prison late last year by an Iraqi court. He was sentenced to life in prison in an earlier case for possession of illegal weapons and manufacture of explosive devices.
He was captured in May 2005 by security forces during a raid on Tikrit, the former leader’s hometown. His father, who served as a presidential adviser before the U.S.-led invasion, was captured there two months earlier.
This breaking news story will be updated.
© 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16125145/
Iraqi court upholds Saddam’s death sentence
Iraq’s national security adviser says verdict upheld against ex-Iraqi leader
BAGHDAD, Iraq - An Iraqi appeals court has upheld the death sentence imposed on Saddam Hussein at his first trial, Iraq’s national security adviser said Tuesday.
“The appeals court approved the verdict to hang Saddam,” Mouwafak al-Rubaie told The Associated Press.
On Nov. 5, an Iraqi court sentenced Saddam to the gallows for the 1982 killings of 148 people from a Shiite Muslim town after an attempt on his life there.
The appeals court decision must be ratified by President Jalal Talabani and Iraq’s two vice presidents. Talabani opposes the death penalty but has in the past deputized a vice president to sign an execution order on his behalf—a substitute that was legally accepted.
Once the decision is ratified, Saddam and other co-defendants sentenced to death at the trial would be hanged within 30 days.
‘We’ll implement the verdict’
Raed Juhi, a spokesman for the High Tribunal court that convicted Saddam, said the Iraqi judicial system would ensure that Saddam is executed even if Talabani and the two vice presidents do not ratify the decision.
“We’ll implement the verdict by the power of the law,” Juhi said without elaborating.
An official on the High Tribunal court said the appeals court also upheld death sentences for Barzan Ibrahim, Saddam’s half brother and intelligence chief during the Dujail killings, and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, head of Iraq’s Revolutionary Court, which issued the death sentences against the Dujail residents.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons, said the appeals court concluded the sentence of life imprisonment given former vice president Taha Yassin Ramadan was too lenient and returned his file to the High Tribunal. Ramadan was convicted of premeditated murder in the Dujail case.
The official said the appeals court demanded the death penalty for Ramadan in a letter to the High Tribunal.
Claims of assassination attempt
At his trial, Saddam argued that the Dujail residents who were killed had been found guilty in a legitimate Iraqi court for trying to assassinate him in 1982.
The televised was watched throughout Iraq and the Middle East as much for theater as for substance. Saddam was ejected from the courtroom repeatedly for political harangues, and his half brother, Ibrahim, once showed up in long underwear and sat with his back to the judges.
The nine-month trial inflamed Iraq’s political divide, however, and three defense lawyers and a witness were murdered during the course of its 39 sessions.
Saddam is in the midst of a second trial charging him with genocide and other crimes during a 1987-88 military crackdown on Kurds in northern Iraq. An estimated 180,000 Kurds died during the operation.
Saddam was found hiding with an unfired pistol in a hole in the ground near his home village north of Baghdad in December 2003, eight months after he fled the capital ahead of advancing American troops.
© 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13163805/
Thanks for the four article.
Iraqis react after court OK's Saddam's hanging
Politicians, including some Sunnis, call for speedy, private execution
BAGHDAD - Iraq's highest court upheld Saddam Hussein's death sentence Tuesday, opening the way for the former Iraqi president to be hanged within 30 days, Iraqi judicial officials said.
Officials in the Iraqi government have already begun to address the logistics and security measures for the execution, possibly a closed and secret one, according to sources familiar with the preparations.
Under Iraq's constitution, the execution can proceed only if ratified by President Jalal Talabani and the country's two vice presidents. There was no immediate comment from the three Tuesday.
If they uphold the decision, as many Iraqis expect, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki would have 30 days to order Hussein's execution. People close to him said Tuesday he would do so quickly.
Capping a trial that was controversial from the start, the decision split the Iraqi public along the fault lines of sect and history. Shiite Muslims and Kurds, whose groups suffered most under Hussein's rule, generally celebrated. Many of Hussein's fellow Sunni Arabs, however, warned that hanging the former president would intensify the current insurgency and sectarian killings.
It remains unclear whether a hanging would be carried out at a pre-announced time, with public observers present. Among several proposals before Maliki is one that calls for Hussein to be executed in secret as early as next week.
His body would then be formally identified by independent observers and the death revealed to the Iraqi public and the rest of the world, according to an official familiar with the proposal. The goal of such an approach would be to reduce retaliatory attacks by Sunnis and other loyalists.
Calls for a speedy execution
On Tuesday, Iraqi politicians, including some Sunnis, issued calls for a speedy execution, expressing concern that a delay could cause more sectarian bloodshed and division.
"The people who wanted Saddam to be hanged and the people who were defending Saddam both were expecting this verdict," said Mahmoud Othman, a Kurdish lawmaker widely seen as neutral by Sunnis and Shiites. Many people would like the execution to happen quickly, Othman said, "because they're afraid that he might escape from prison. The more it's delayed, the more people will talk about it. It will be a divisive thing in society."
Tuesday's decision came 51 days after Hussein was sentenced to death for crimes against humanity for the killings of 148 Shiite men and boys from the town of Dujail after an assassination attempt there in 1982.
The U.S-backed trial was marred by allegations of bias and by courtroom speeches and outbursts from the defendants. Intended to deliver justice to Iraqis oppressed under Hussein, the proceedings unfolded against a backdrop of escalating sectarian strife that took thousands of lives and widened the gap between Sunnis and Shiites.
Talabani, a Kurd, is firmly against the death penalty. But in past cases he has deputized one of the vice presidents -- Adel Abdel-Mehdi, a Shiite, and Tariq al-Hashemi, a Sunni -- to sign execution orders on his behalf. All three signatures are required for an execution order to be valid.
Some analysts in Baghdad questioned whether Hashemi would endorse the execution. But they also noted that he had recently called on President Bush at the White House.
If the government does not send Hussein to the gallows, the Iraqi High Tribunal's code would ensure his execution by other means, legal experts said.
Several officials close to Maliki, a Shiite, said Tuesday that he plans to proceed with the execution as soon as legally possible. "Definitely," said Sadiq Rikabi, a political adviser to the president. "This is in order to open a new page in the history of the Iraqi people."
The nine-judge appeals court also upheld execution sentences for Barzan Ibrahim, Hussein's half brother, and former judge Awad Haman Bander for their roles in the Dujail killings. The judges also changed the sentence of former vice president Taha Yassin Ramadan from life to death.
"In the name of the good Sunnis, the liberal Sunnis, the patriotic Sunnis, we are happy to hear this decision," said Mithal al-Alousi, an influential Sunni politician. "The people are asking us to make political pressure to execute Saddam immediately. We need to close this file. There's no other way for Iraq to move forward."
Hussein's lawyer warns of region's reaction
Saleh al-Armouti, one of Hussein's lawyers, warned against a hanging. "The region now will be more in flames, and the resistance will increase across the Arab world," he said, speaking by telephone from neighboring Jordan. "His absence will lead to more strife and civil war inside Iraq."
Armouti said that Hussein, who is being held at Camp Cropper, a U.S. military prison near Baghdad airport, had expected the appeals court's decision. "His morale is very high," Armouti said. "He doesn't fear death. His will and his faith are very strong."
International human rights groups criticized the Dujail trial as unfair and improperly run, describing it as a victor's court. Human rights activists said they had hoped the appeals court would carry out a careful and comprehensive legal review and correct what they viewed as major flaws in the conduct of the trial.
"We think, given the unfairness in the proceedings, it would be indefensible to execute Saddam Hussein regardless of the crimes alleged in Dujail in 1982," said Richard Dicker, director of the International Justice Program of New York-based Human Rights Watch.
Dicker criticized the appeals court for reaching a decision so soon after Hussein's attorneys filed an appeal, which they did Dec. 3. He said the former president's defense team did not even receive the written judgment from the trial until weeks after the verdict was pronounced, which delayed their preparation for the appeal. "The whole manner in which this has unfolded suggests a highly politicized, nonjudicial approach to what is such an important case," Dicker said.
Bassam Ridha, who serves as a government liaison to the Iraqi High Tribunal, disputed charges that the government had interfered in the judicial process. "It was a very fair process," Ridha said, adding that the trial met international legal standards. "What we are doing is not a human rights violation. Where were these activists when my people were slaughtered?"
In Dujail, residents described the decision as bringing them a step nearer the closure they have awaited for nearly 25 years. "Now I feel that there is actually a God up there in Heaven," said Haiyder Hamed, 43, a farmer.
Other residents wondered what the future would bring in a world without Hussein. "Executing Saddam is achieving justice on earth and in heaven," said Hussein Mahmoud, 28, a police officer. "But will executing him bring Iraq as it used to be or will it make Iraq a burnt land?"
In Mosul, college student Sardar Mohamad Hassan, 25, said Hussein should not be executed because he still faces charges of crimes against humanity in at least a dozen other cases.
Anfal trial underway
In the current phase of the trial, Hussein and six co-defendants are accused of orchestrating the killing or wounding of hundreds of thousands of Kurds with poison gas and other weapons during the so-called Anfal campaign of the late 1980s. Hussein is scheduled to return to court on Jan. 8.
Ridha said the Anfal trial would continue even if Hussein is executed and that Kurdish victims would get the justice they seek. "If Saddam Hussein is gone, it doesn't mean all these guys go free," he said.
In the northern city of Tikrit, Hussein's home town, residents reacted angrily to the decision. "We should not pour oil on the fire," said Khairallah Muhammad 45, a merchant. "This verdict is going to be the end to America, and it will be another Vietnam."
At Hannah restaurant in Baghdad's Karrada neighborhood, employees and regular customers crowded around the butcher's table to talk about the possible execution. Each said he had a relative or friend who had been imprisoned or killed by Hussein's government.
Sadiq Esa, 31, said he wants more than to see him executed. "I swear to God, I will kill him with my own hands," he said, sipping a cup of sweet tea at a table covered with raw meat and blood.
Jafar Hani, the 22-year-old butcher, called Hussein a "monster." As he diced and skewered pieces of meat, he said, "The whole world wants him to be put in the center of Baghdad so everyone can see him hang."
Special correspondents Saad al-Izzi, Naseer Nouri, Waleed Saffar, Muhanned Saif Aldin and other Washington Post staff in Iraq contributed to this report.
© 2006 The Washington Post Company
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16361086/
will he die "hung"? Ouch, it would be better with a lethal shot, even if whatever way to die is horrible:eek:
Hussein letter posted on Web, accepting death, urging national unity
BAGHDAD-- Former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, faced with execution for crimes during a tough crackdown against Shiite villagers nearly 25 years ago, has issued what can only be described as a goodbye letter -- a fatalistic "last word" that accepts what he believes is his impending martyrdom and urges Iraqi national unity.
The letter, which argues that the "diverse nation" of Iraq now embroiled in sectarian bloodshed can be a "model for love, forgiveness and coexistence," slams both the U.S.-led coalition and Iran. At the same time, it calls on Iraqis to differentiate between coalition governments and their citizens.
The Baathist Web site -- albasrah.net -- posted the letter Tuesday. Chief Defense Attorney Khalil al-Dulaimi said the letter, addressed to supporters in and outside of Iraq, was written earlier this month before the appeals court ruling upholding Hussein's execution. Hussein was convicted of crimes against humanity in a crackdown against residents of Dujail after a failed assassination attempt in 1982.
The letter, translated by CNN, alternates between the second-person, first-person and the royal "we" and was signed by "Saddam Hussein, president of the Republic and commander of the resisting armed forces." (Posted 10:12 a.m.)
Saddam to be hanged by Sunday
Ex-dictator’s execution expected to be carried out by start of Eid holiday
NBC News and news services
Updated: 1 hour, 5 minutes ago
Former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, sentenced to death for his role in 148 killings in 1982, will have his sentence carried out by Sunday, NBC News reported Thursday. According to a U.S. military officer who spoke on condition of anonymity, Saddam will be hanged before the start of the Eid religious holiday, which begins at sundown Saturday.
The hanging could take place as early as Friday, NBC’s Richard Engel reported.
The U.S. military received a formal request from the Iraqi government to transfer Saddam to Iraqi authorities, NBC reported on Thursday, which is one of the final steps required before his execution. His sentence, handed down last month, ordered that he be hanged within 30 days.
Earlier Thursday, Saddam’s chief lawyer implored world leaders to prevent the United States from handing over the ousted leader to Iraqi authorities for execution, saying the former dictator should enjoy protection from his enemies as a “prisoner of war.”
“According to the international conventions, it is forbidden to hand a prisoner of war to his adversary,” Saddam’s lawyer, Khalil al-Dulaimi, said in Amman, Jordan.
“I urge all the international and legal organizations, the United Nations secretary-general, the Arab League and all the leaders of the world to rapidly prevent the American administration from handing the president to the Iraqi authorities,” he told The Associated Press.
Meets with half-brothers
Saddam met with two of his half-brothers on Thursday and passed on personal messages to his family, a lawyer said.
Badie Aref, one of Saddam's lawyers, said the rare meeting with maternal half-brothers Sabawi and Watban Ibrahim Hassanal-Tikriti, who are in U.S. custody, was at the request of the ousted Iraqi leader and took place inside his heavily guarded prison cell in Baghdad.
Aref said Saddam was in very high spirits and had sensed “something was happening relating to the sentence” when prison guards took away a small radio he had been given several months ago.
“He met Sabawi and Watban and gave them letters to his family in anticipation.... He is clearly unaware of the details of what is happening around him and prepared to give his life as a martyr to his country,” Aref told Reuters by telephone.
Aref said prison sources who told him of the family meeting said Saddam was aware of an appeals court decision to uphold his death sentence for crimes against humanity during his 24-year rule.
“He was in very high spirits and clearly readying himself,” Aref said during a visit to Dubai.
“He told them that he was happy he would meet his death at the hands of his enemies and be a martyr and not just languish in prison in oblivion.”
Aref said he was unsure if Saddam's third half-brother, Barzan al-Tikriti, who was sentenced to death along with the ousted leader, saw Saddam.
Fears that handover may spark violence
An official close to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has said that Saddam would remain in a U.S. military prison until he is handed over to Iraqi authorities on the day of his execution. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to address the media.
A top government official disputed the court’s ruling that Saddam must be hanged within 30 days, saying the execution should be held after that time period. The comment comes amid debate over other legal procedures such as whether the presidency is required to approve the execution.
Cardinal Renato Martino, Pope Benedict XVI’s top prelate for justice issues and a former Vatican envoy to the U.N., condemned the death sentence in a newspaper interview published Thursday, saying capital punishment goes against the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church.
After his sentence was given, Louise Arbour, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, urged Iraq to ensure a fair appeals process and to refrain from executing Saddam even if the sentence is upheld.
Some international legal observers and human rights groups have also called Saddam’s trial unfair because of alleged interference by the Shiite-dominated government.
NBC News’ Richard Engel, Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16384738/?GT1=8816
If this does indeed happen, look out. I am sure there will be some retaliation against us and make things worser.
Everyone is conenning here now.. poor Hussein, I don't know, I'm starting to feel something, cuz I rather for him the jail for life. But one never knows what the decitions are gonna take place:dunno:
Official: Saddam To Die Before Sunrise
(CBS/AP) Saddam Hussein will be executed before 6 a.m. Saturday, Baghdad time, a senior Iraqi government official said.
The time (10 p.m. Friday night EST) was agreed upon during a meeting between U.S. and Iraqi officials, said the official, who declined to be named because he is not authorized to speak to the media.
"The time has been agreed upon. It will be done by six o'clock in the morning," the official said. "The agreement was reached during a meeting between Iraqi and American officials. Saddam will be handed over shortly before the execution."
Saddam remains in a jail cell in U.S. custody — but once he is given over to Iraqi officials, he could head straight for his execution, reports CBS News national security correspondent David Martin.
Meanwhile, the witnesses to Saddam Hussein's impending execution gathered in Baghdad's fortified Green Zone in final preparation for his hanging, as state television broadcast footage of his regime's atrocities.
Meanwhile, lawyers for Saddam made a last-minute appeal to an American court to avert execution in Iraq, asking a judge to block his transfer from U.S. custody to the hands of Iraqi officials.
Hussein's lawyers filed documents Friday afternoon asking for a stay of execution. The 21-page request was filed in U.S. District Court in Washington before Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly.
Attorneys argued that because Hussein also faces a civil lawsuit in Washington, he has rights as a civil defendant that would be violated if he is executed. He has not received notice of those rights and the consequences that the lawsuit would have on his estate, his attorneys said.
"To protect those rights, defendant Saddam Hussein requests an order of this court providing a stay of his execution until further notice of this court," attorney Nicholas Gilman wrote.
The Iraqi government readied all the necessary documents, including a "red card" — an execution order introduced during Saddam's dictatorship. As the hour of his death approached, Saddam received two of his half brothers in his cell on Thursday and was said to have given them his personal belongings and a copy of his will.
Najeeb al-Nueimi, a member of Saddam's legal team in Doha, Qatar, said he, too, requested a final meeting with the deposed Iraqi leader. "His daughter in Amman was crying; she said 'Take me with you,"' al-Nueimi said late Friday. But he said their request was rejected.
Munir Haddad, a judge on the appeals court that upheld Saddam's death sentence, said he was ready to attend the hanging and that all the paperwork was in order, including the red card.
"Saddam will be executed today or tomorrow," Haddad said. "All the measures have been done. ... There is no reason for delays."
The physical transfer of Saddam from U.S. to Iraqi authorities was believed to be one of the last steps before he was to be hanged.
"We have agreed with the Americans that the handover will take place only a few minutes before he is executed," a senior Iraqi government official said on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media.
Al-Nueimi said U.S. authorities were maintaining physical custody of Saddam to prevent him from being humiliated before his execution. He said the Americans also want to prevent the mutilation of his corpse, as has happened to other deposed Iraqi leaders.
"The Americans want him to be hanged respectfully," al-Nueimi said. If Saddam is humiliated publicly or his corpse ill-treated "that could cause an uprising and the Americans would be blamed," he said.
Saddam's lawyers issued a statement Friday calling on "everybody to do everything to stop this unfair execution." The statement also said the former president had been transferred from U.S. custody, though American and Iraqi officials later denied that.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said opposing Saddam's execution was an insult to his victims. His office said he made the remarks in a meeting with families of people who died during Saddam's rule.
"Our respect for human rights requires us to execute him, and there will be no review or delay in carrying out the sentence," al-Maliki said.
State television ran footage of the Saddam era's atrocities, including images of uniformed men placing a bomb next to a youth's chest and blowing him up in what looked like a desert, and handcuffed men being thrown from a high building.
With U.S. forces on high alert for a surge in violence, people registered to attend the hanging gathered in Baghdad's Green Zone before they were to go to the execution site, the Iraqi official said.
Those cleared to attend the execution included a Muslim cleric, lawmakers, senior officials and relatives of victims of Saddam's brutal rule, the official said. Aides to al-Maliki were waiting for U.S. representatives to arrive at his office to set the hour for the execution, the official said.
He did not disclose the location of the gallows.
Raed Juhi, spokesman for the High Tribunal court that convicted Saddam, said documents related to the execution would be read to Saddam before the execution. The documents included the red card, al-Maliki's signed approval of the sentence and the appeal court's decision.
Saddam has been in U.S. custody since he was captured in December 2003.
An Iraqi appeals court upheld Saddam's death sentence Tuesday for the killing of 148 people who were detained after an attempt to assassinate him in the northern Iraqi city of Dujail in 1982. The court said the hanging should take place within 30 days.
Awad Hamed al-Bandar, the former chief justice of the Revolutionary Court, who also appealed in U.S. court, is expected to be executed along with Saddam. Also slated for execution is Barzan Ibrahim, Saddam's half brother and former intelligence chief.
There had been disagreements among Iraqi officials in recent days as to whether Iraqi law dictates the execution must take place within 30 days and whether President Jalal Talabani and his two deputies had to approve it.
In his Friday sermon, a mosque preacher in the Shiite holy city of Najaf called Saddam's execution "God's gift to Iraqis."
"Oh, God, you know what Saddam has done! He killed millions of Iraqis in prisons, in wars with neighboring countries and he is responsible for mass graves," said Sheik Sadralddin al-Qubanji, a member of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, known as SCIRI, a dominant party in al-Maliki's coalition. "Oh God, we ask you to take revenge on Saddam."
In other recent developments in Iraq:
A suicide bomber killed nine civilians north of Baghdad on Friday afternoon, police said. At least a dozen people were also injured when the bomber detonated his explosives belt in Khalis, 50 miles north of the Iraqi capital, police said.
Two Iranian diplomats detained by U.S. troops in Iraq were released early Friday in Baghdad, Iran's state-run television and news agency reported. The Iranians were in Iraq on the invitation of Talabani, officials have said. Their detention was announced on Monday.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/12/29/iraq/main2309460.shtml
FinnFreak
12-29-2006, 7:48pm
Retaliation..?
No.
Nobody really cares.
But,eventually some noises will raise against this.
And - they have every right to do so.
Iraq, a sovereign country, was undertaken by unlawful means:
3,000 U.S. soldiers killed to this day.
600,000 Iraquis killed to this day.
...and this continues.
Nonsense.
Crazyness.
I Wish Too See This No More.
John - :sad:
What will happen after Hussein's death, which according to the newest info is supossed to take place tomorrow around 9pm or 10om time of America.
Only the destination will reflect it with the facts.
FinnFreak
12-29-2006, 8:31pm
Nobody denies what the Saddam Hussein regime has done to the country.
But, what is the future direction given..? - None.
And, what is the message to future generations..? - Do whatever you want..?
Don't even bother to ask..?
We are talking about a country of tens of millions here.
It's THEIR oil. It's their LIVES. It's their FUTURE. It's their COUNTRY.
SHAME ON US. SHAME ON THEM. SHAME ON US ALL.
Who calls *this* a victory, is so out of whack... I don't know what to say...
All I can do, is ask the Iraqi people for forgiveness, for what we have done, and how we have for once and for all... made a mockery of the term: "democracy".
The amount of shame, many of us feel now, is beyond any recognition.
Iraq should have done this by themselves, for themselves... and carried the burden by themselves.
By overthrowing a dictator, we can only wait for another to arise... the people have not yet decided amongst themselves what they want... and probably... they won't be even be given the chance.
John - :sad:
Reports: Saddam Hussein executed
Deposed Iraqi dictator hanged for deaths of 148 Shiites in 1982
BREAKING NEWS
MSNBC staff and news service reports
Updated: 1 minute ago
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Three years after he was hauled from a hole in the ground by pursuing U.S. forces, Saddam Hussein was hanged Saturday under a sentence imposed by an Iraqi court, al-Hurra TV, al-Arabiya and Sky News TV reported.
The deposed president was found guilty over the killing of 148 members of the Shiite population of the town of Dujail after militants tried to assassinate him there in 1982, during Iraq’s war with Shiite Iran.
The official witnesses to his execution gathered Friday in Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone in final preparation for his hanging, as state television broadcast footage of his regime’s atrocities.
The Pentagon said U.S. forces, always on high alert in Iraq, were braced for any upsurge in violence from Sunni insurgents loyal to Saddam.
A U.S. judge refused late Friday to stop the execution, rejecting a last-minute court challenge by the former Iraqi president.
"Petitioner Hussein's application for immediate, temporary stay of execution is denied," U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly said in Washington after a hearing over the telephone with attorneys.
An Iraqi appeals court upheld Saddam’s death sentence Tuesday for the killing of 148 people who were detained and tortured after the attempt on his life.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said in statements released Friday that those who opposed the execution of Saddam were insulting the honor of his victims. His office said he made the remarks in a meeting with families of people who died during Saddam’s rule.
“Our respect for human rights requires us to execute him, and there will be no review or delay in carrying out the sentence,” al-Maliki said.
‘God’s gift to Iraqis’
In his Friday sermon, a mosque preacher in the Shiite holy city of Najaf called Saddam’s execution “God’s gift to Iraqis.”
“Oh, God, you know what Saddam has done! He killed millions of Iraqis in prisons, in wars with neighboring countries and he is responsible for mass graves. Oh God, we ask you to take revenge on Saddam,” said Sheik Sadralddin al-Qubanji, a member of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, known as SCIRI.
Rumors and reports swirled Friday over when the execution would take place and whether U.S. forces had handed Saddam over to Iraqi custody, presumably the last step before the execution.
Earlier reports said al-Maliki feared fueling religious tensions if Saddam were executed during Eid al-Adha, a Muslim holiday that starts at sundown Saturday.
An execution during Eid carries great symbolism. The feast marks the sacrifice the prophet Abraham was prepared to make when God ordered him to kill his son, and many Shiites could regard Saddam’s death as a gift from God. Such symbolism could further anger Sunnis, who are resentful of new Shiite power.
Najeeb al-Nueimi, a member of Saddam’s legal team, said U.S. authorities were maintaining physical custody of Saddam until the time of the execution to prevent him from being humiliated beforehand. He said the Americans also want to prevent the mutilation of his corpse, as has happened to other deposed Iraqi leaders.
Saddam has been held at a U.S. base near Baghdad airport, but the place of execution has been kept secret.
Meeting with half-brothers
Saddam, who said in court he had no fear of dying, had a farewell meeting with two of his half-brothers on Thursday, his lawyers said, adding the fallen dictator was in high spirits and ready to die a “martyr.” A third half-brother and another aide are also condemned to die for crimes against humanity.
Saddam’s conviction was hailed by President Bush as a triumph for the democracy he promised to foster in Iraq after the 2003 invasion.
International human rights groups criticized the year-long trial, during which three defense lawyers were killed and a chief judge resigned complaining of political interference.
Rights groups, along with the United Nations and many of the United States’ Western allies, oppose capital punishment and have voiced unease over the decision to put Saddam to death.
Saddam's lawyers issued a statement Friday calling on "everybody to do everything to stop this unfair execution." The statement also said the former president had been transferred from U.S. custody, though American and Iraqi officials later denied that.
The governments of Yemen and Libya made eleventh-hour appeals that Saddam's life be spared.
Yemeni Prime Minister Abdul-Kader Bajammal wrote to the U.S. and Iraqi presidents, warning in his letter to President Bush that Saddam's execution would "increase the sectarian violence" in Iraq, according to the official Yemeni news agency Saba.
Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi made an indirect appeal to save Saddam, telling Al-Jazeera television that his trial was illegal and that he should be retried by an international court.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16389128/
I hope their isn't any retaliation.
I'm sorry for him. I was always disagreed with his "execution"...
He didn't worry about killing his own grandchildren. He was a very bad person.
I'm against capital punishment like most Brits (including Tony Blair) so I would have locked him up for life and maybe saved any further killings as a result of his hanging.
I agree with you. That is what I was telling. He was too bad, and he deserved staying at prision for life, but we all know what Bush has inside his 'brain'... Well, to him might be another point to "win" the Iraqui war. If you're watching CNN you can hear it.
FinnFreak
12-30-2006, 12:15am
hmph... I wouldn't be surprised at all if some old "forgotten" documents from the 70-80's would start surfacing in the next following days...
...could be pretty embarrassing...
John - :smirk:
Uh, independiently about that, there is no reason to do what they DID.
I live by a simple code....two wrongs don't make a right. In my opinion, those who order executions are just as guilty as the accused.
The thing is it was the Iraqi court who ordered the execution not the US. They provided the means to be able to let the case go ahead. And who made the Iraqi laws in the first place? Saddam himself. He got a fair hearing unlike all the people who were tried in his time as president.
Totally agree with your points of view:up:
FinnFreak
12-30-2006, 2:41am
The thing is it was the Iraqi court who ordered the execution not the US. They provided the means to be able to let the case go ahead. And who made the Iraqi laws in the first place? Saddam himself. He got a fair hearing unlike all the people who were tried in his time as president.
...which in fact works for the favor of the U.S. and other allies Saddam Hussein had during his regime. Now, he has been permanently silenced.
It was clear from the very moment they captured him, there's no way in hell he would be tried in Europe, for instance.
I'm certainly NOT defending that dictator - he got what was coming to him. I just disagree with the barbaric way this trial and execution was performed.
People celebrating a death. Disgusting. Utterly disgusting. :mad:
Is the world now a safer place..? Problems solved..? Now, who is going to execute those responsible for the 600,000 Iraqi deaths since the beginning of this war..? - not to mention other dictatorships around the globe, supported by several governments.
We all have blood on our hands.
John - :sad:
Skippy95
12-30-2006, 9:04am
I won't cry for him.
TV holds tense death watch for Saddam
LOS ANGELES - TV news channels played a tense waiting game Friday as they ticked off the final hours of Saddam Hussein's life, replaying scenes from the former Iraqi dictator's reign as they waited for his death.
Saddam's hanging Friday night ended a day of TV reporting fraught with uncertainty and speculation about whether his execution was imminent.
"The situation seems to be one of tremendous flux, but you and your viewers already know that," Feisal al-Istrabadi, Iraq's deputy ambassador to the United Nations, said on CNN several hours before Saddam's death.
At about 10:15 p.m. EST, NBC broke into regular programming with a special report announcing Hussein's execution. NBC attributed the news to three "very credible" Arabic language news stations.
A few minutes later, Katie Couric made the announcement for CBS, also breaking into programming.
"Saddam Hussein is dead. We have just received word that the former president of Iraq has been executed. No details yet, but Iraqi authorities said they were planning to videotape the death," Couric said.
She then went to correspondent Randall Pinkston, who said the network was told by one of Saddam Hussein's lawyers that the execution was carried out just before 10 p.m. Eastern time.
ABC issued its report shortly before 10:30 p.m. EST, citing a senior military official in Baghdad.
Reports on cable channels Fox News Channel and CNN cited Arab language news stations.
After Saddam's death, the issue became whether footage, if made available, would be shown.
"American forces across Iraq are bracing for a possible violent reaction to the execution and we should say that NBC News is not going to broadcast videotape of the execution," newscaster Campbell Brown said.
But CNN's Anderson Cooper indicated the door was open.
"We will be bringing those images to you as appropriate," said Cooper. Video and still photos had been taken of the execution but would be reviewed by the channel before airing, he said.
"We won't be showing anything too graphic," Cooper said.
But in the hours after Saddam's death, the story was told in words and old footage. There was brief coverage of members of the Iraq community in Dearborn, Mich., celebrating his execution, but otherwise news channels relied on file film of Saddam and war-torn Iraq.
Before the execution, news executives were reluctant to discuss hypothetically what they might show if video or still pictures were made available. They said they would weigh questions of tastefulness with the need to illustrate an important story.
NBC News will use discretion in what it shows, but people have the right to see proof that Saddam was killed, said Phil Alongi, executive producer, NBC News special events.
"We're not going to do it just for the shock value," Alongi said earlier Friday.
CBS News discussed general guidelines in the days when it became clear that the execution was imminent.
"We need to show Saddam being taken to his execution and we need to show the results of the execution, but we will not see any moving video of him actually being hanged," said Paul Friedman, CBS News executive.
Bob Murphy, ABC News senior vice president, recalled that when Saddam's two sons were killed, his network showed pictures of their faces after death but showed nothing of their bodies.
Several hours after the execution, Murphy said ABC would use its "editorial judgment" in reviewing any footage and deciding whether it was appropriate to air. Based on unconfirmed information, he said, the execution may have been taped in its entirety.
If Iraqi TV viewers were glued to their TV sets, as one channel reported, the broadcast networks apparently felt that the news bulletins would hold U.S. viewers for now: All switched back to regular programming Friday, although ABC followed the story on news magazine "20/20."
MSNBC, Fox News Channel and CNN stayed with Saddam coverage. Fox's Bill O'Reilly might have taken issue with the broadcast network's brief reports.
Saddam's execution represented a "big moment, much bigger than the press in America is portraying it," O'Reilly said earlier Friday, adding: "It's not at the level of (Osama) bin Laden. Bin Laden would be off the chart, great."
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