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| Friday, 2 July 2004 |
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Saddam faces Iraqi judge in first step to trial BAGHDAD, Thursday (Reuters) Saddam Hussein appeared before an Iraqi judge on Wednesday when Iraq's new sovereign government took the first step towards putting him on trial - with a possible death penalty - for decades of killing and torture. "Today at 10:15 a.m. (0615 GMT) the Republic of Iraq assumed legal custody of Saddam Hussein," said a short statement from interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's office. The deposed leader and 11 of his lieutenants were turned over to face Iraqi justice nearly 15 months after U.S.-led forces overthrew him. They will stay under U.S. military guard. "Saddam said 'Good morning' and asked if he could ask some questions," said Salem Chalabi, the U.S.-trained lawyer leading the work of a tribunal set up to try the former president. "He was told he should wait until tomorrow," Chalabi told Reuters after attending the formalities in which Saddam and his former lieutenants were turned over to Iraqi justice. Chalabi, who has received death threats since he began work on the tribunal, said the 67-year-old Saddam looked in good health and had sat in a chair during the closed proceedings. Saddam's former aides appeared nervous or hostile and one of them, Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as Chemical Ali for his role in using chemical weapons, was shaking. Saddam, accused by Iraqis of ordering the killing and torture of thousands of people during 35 years of Baathist rule, had been held as a prisoner of war since U.S. forces found him hiding in a hole near his home town of Tikrit on December 13. He will now be subject to Iraqi criminal law, rather than a prisoner of war protected by the Geneva Conventions. Iraq's National Security Adviser Mowaffaq al-Rubaie said Saddam would get a fair, televised trial and may face execution. But the trial is likely to be several months away. Iraq's President Ghazi al-Yawar was quoted as saying the death penalty, suspended during the U.S.-led occupation, would be reinstated. Yawar told Asharq al-Awsat newspaper Iraq would reintroduce a 1960s national security law, which he said contained "resolute measures against terrorist acts and breaches of the law". Saddam will be charged with crimes against humanity for a 1988 gas massacre of Kurds, the 1990 invasion of Kuwait and the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war, according to Chalabi. Kuwait called for Saddam to be sentenced to death over Baghdad's seven-month occupation of the Gulf state in 1990-91. In Washington, the White House said it was up to Iraqis to decide on the death penalty. "That's going to be a decision that will be made by the Iraqi people through their special tribunal," said White House spokesman Scott McClellan. French lawyer Emmanuel Ludot, one of a 20-strong team appointed by Saddam's wife to represent him, said the former president would refuse to acknowledge any court or any judge. Among others to be handed over were former Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz and three of Saddam's half-brothers. These former officials and others among the 55 most wanted Iraqis on a U.S. list are seen as witnesses who could help prove a chain of command linking Saddam to crimes against humanity. The new U.S. ambassador to Iraq, John Negroponte, presided over a flag-raising ceremony at the official opening of a new embassy in Baghdad that will be Washington's biggest. |
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