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The First Conviction
The first in a series of trials of Saddam Hussein and his associates has ended in Baghdad with a death sentence. The sentence was no surprise to anyone. Iraqi authorities chose a case that was easy to prove and unproblematic for the allies for their show trial.
The Case of the Massacre
The events in the Iraqi city of Dujail were known only in Iraq until recently. If they were mentioned outside the country at all, it was only in passing, a phrase about a massacre of Shia in a small town 50 km. outside of Baghdad, in the list of better-known crimes of the regime against its own people and foreigners like the war against Iran, the invasion of Kuwait, the annihilation of Kurds with chemical weapons and executions without trial after the Shia uprising in the south of the country.
The condensed history of case is as follows. On July 8, 1982, Saddam Hussein went to Dujail, where both Sunni and Shia live. He gave a speech thanking local residents for their contribution to struggle against the enemy (the Iran-Iraq war was raging at the time), took pictures with children and Baath Party functionaries and went back to Baghdad. As the president's motorcade was leaving the town, it was fired on. That was a Shia group's revenge on the dictator for the execution of one of the Iraq's leading Shia spiritual leaders, Ayatollah Mohammed Bakr al-Sadr. Saddam returned to Dujail to show the townspeople that he was still alive and to tell them that they would face the full brunt of Iraqi law.
Several hours later, troops entered the town and what is now known as the Dujail Massacre began. The trial was fast. The tribunal sentenced 148 people, including minors to death and several hundred more died in prison, many of torture.
The Prosecution's Position
For the Iraqi Special Tribunal, organized to judge Hussein, it was an open and shut case. The cruel show trial of residents of the small town, the mass executions, torture, destruction of the homes of those executed, the imprisonment of their relatives in concentration camps on the border with Saudi Arabia were all documented. There were hundreds of witnesses against Hussein.
Therefore, even before Hussein and seven of his accomplices appeared in the snow-white dock of the court, prosecutors were confident that a guilty verdict would be reached against the eight on all charges – premeditated murder, illegal imprisonment, deprivation of freedom of movement, forced deportation and torture, and quickly, if the defense did not stall for time. In that case, the prosecution would seek death sentences for three defendants, Saddam Hussein, his half-brother Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti and “revolutionary court” judge Awad Hamed al-Bandar, and lengthy prison terms for the other defendants.
The Defense's Position
Several dozen lawyers from various countries came to Hussein's defense. The international defense group was headed by former U.S. secretary of justice Ramsey Clark and former Qatari justice minister Najib al-Nuaimi. They say that they were confident of their victory and their ability to show the absurdity of the charges if the trial would in fact be independent and unprejudiced.
The defense position was also simple. The execution of criminal cannot be considered murder and arrest and imprisonment during an investigation, and all the more so as punishment, are lawful measures accepted in all countries of the world. There could only be a question of “excesses,” but those were easily explainable in wartime conditions and the defendants were not guilty of them any way. In the end, the president of a country, the vice president and even the heads of state security services cannot and should not control the actions of hundreds of law enforcement employees on a daily basis. As for the deportations, the lawyers found numerous historic precedents, the destruction of terrorists' homes by the Israelis, for instance.
The defense tactics proven insufficient even during the trial. “You can contemplate the prosecution and defense arguments all you want in the quiet of law offices.” commented British legal expert Nathaniel Taylor, who admitted to having done just that, “But it's a different matter to hear the testimony of living people, whose stories make it obvious that a system of the cruelest violations of human rights existed in Iraq, and the most inhumane torture and the most monstrous scale of repression.”
Saddam's Position
The trial was a series of scandals provoked by Saddam and his accomplices from the very first day. The prosecution showed the testimony of a former member of the Iraqi security service who participated in the events in Dujail after the assassination attempt against Saddam. The testimony was recorded a few days before the witness's death from cancer. He said that, in spite of the fact that no more than ten people participated in the assassination attempt, at least 400 were arrested, and many of them tortured immediately after arrest. Elderly men, women and children were sent to certain deaths in Abu Ghraib.
That was the moment Saddam chose to complain about his inhumane treatment. He was forced to climb four flights of stairs because of a broken elevator. When the witness told of how Hussein's personal bodyguard participated in the torture, the ex-dictator complained of having his rights violated. They took away his pen and paper. “How can a defendant defend himself, if he doesn't even have pen and paper?” he thundered.
These scandals became a daily occurrence. The former dictator didn't like what they were calling him. He declared a hunger strike after a member of his defense team was murdered. Then he began boycotting the trial and had to be brought to the courtroom by force. But when the defense was given the floor, his behavior changed. Once again, he was the leader who loved his people and was grateful that, even in these hard times, there were still those patriots ready to tell the truth to defend their leader.
“Saddam changed masks by the minute,” a French journalist recalled, “from great political leader to spoiled child, saint persecuted by the infidels, wise elder, misunderstood genius… It was interesting to watch his behavior, but there was something disgusting about it, almost sickening.”
The Court's Position
Although the court of initially accused of prejudice against Hussein and his accomplices, it soon became clear that the chief judges of the Iraqi Special Tribunal (first Mohammed Amin and later Rauf Abdel Rahman) were maximally reserved in relation to the defendant. “If I had been the judge's place,” former American judge Thomas Hutchins admitted, “ I would have sent Saddam back to his cell long ago and continued without him.” In Hussein's trial for crimes against the Kurds, the judge does just that. But neither Amin nor Rahman ever did so, not even after Saddam swore at Amin in public and told the court that he was too tired to go on.
The court's verdict, announced at the beginning of this month, was completely predictable. Saddam Hussein, his half-brother Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti and “revolutionary court” judge Awad Hamed al-Bandar were sentenced to death. Former vice president of Iraq Taha Yassin Ramadan was sentenced to life imprisonment, and the remainder to 15 years. Muhammed Azawi Ali, a high Baath Party functionary in Dujail was freed for lack of evidence.
The Case of the Dictator's Execution
Under Iraqi law, the death sentence is to be carried out within a month of its passing. That deadline will not be met in Saddam Hussein's case. His trial on accusations of using chemical weapons against the Kurd in the early 1980s is still in progress and he has several more trail coming. Iraqi authorities have declared that they can hold those trials without Saddam. But if he is executed now, he will be considered convicted in absentia in the other trials. Nonetheless, the authorities, who have followed all the rules in the trying of Hussein (little as that is part of Iraqi court tradition), will most likely continue in the same vein and observe every formality, including an appeal and hearing on a pardon. The expectedly strong reaction brought on by the death sentence from the majority of foreign heads of state, including those of countries that were members of the anti-Saddam coalition, may lead the Iraqis to draw out the appeal and pardon hearings past April 28 of next year. After that date, it will be impossible to execute Hussein. Iraqi law prohibits the execution of persons age 70 or older.
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Disruptive Defendant
During his trial for genocide of the Kurds (which is still in progress), the main defendant has been repeatedly sent out of the courtroom because of his behavior.
For standing: On September 20, 2006, Saddam Hussein protested against the appointment of new chief judge Muhammad Oreibi al-Khalifa. The judge's predecessor, Abdullah al-Ameri, was found to be unreliable after he stated that he did not consider Hussein a dictator. Hussein stood when the judge entered the chamber and then refused to sit down. After being warned several times, he was led out of the court. All his lawyers left with him.
For being offended by the dock: On September 25, Saddam announced that he no longer intended to sit in the dock for the defendant. That anger Judge al-Khalifa, who declared that he, and he alone, would decide where Hussein would sit and whether he would be present in the courtroom at all. Then he demonstrated his authority by ordering the defendant taken out. All his lawyers left with Hussein.
For speaking loudly: On the next day, Hussein was again ordered out of the court, this time for talking loudly. Hussein entered into a loud exchange with the judge at the very beginning of the session and conversed loudly with his neighbors in the dock. When the judge asked him to be quieter, he answered with an insult. After Hussein was removed from the court, his codefendants' microphones were turned off.
For reading the Koran: On October 10, Judge al-Khalifa was again forced to have Saddam removed from the courtroom. The former president began to read the Koran loudly, interfering with the normal course of the trial. After his microphone was turned off, Hussein insulted the judge. This time guards had to be called in to lead Hussein away since he refused to leave on his own.
What Was Said in Court
The defense and prosecution looked at the events in Dujail from different angles during the trial.
From the Testimony of Witnesses for the Prosecution
Witness A.: A security service officer led me into a room. He forced me to take my clothes off. He pointed a pistol at me. There was a shot. I didn't understand immediately that it wasn't a real shot, but a blank. I lied on the floor and they lifted up my feet and tied them to my hands and began to attach electrodes all over my body. They beat me and tortured me with electric shock. I began to beg them to stop, and they struck me in the face several times with the butts of their guns. There were five of them, and I was a lone naked woman. This that what is supposed to happen to the honest Iraqi women that Saddam spoke of?...
After a month, new people came in. Taha Yassin [Ramadan, then vice president of Iraq] was among them. He was in an army uniform and had a machinegun in his hands. He stood and watched as bulldozers destroyed our homes and gardens.
Witness E.: People around me were crying and screaming in pain because they had been beaten. One man was torture so badly that he died… When my turn came, the investigator called my name and turned to Barzan [al-Tikriti] and asked him what to do with me. “We have to take him. He may be useful,” Barzan said. Then they sent us to prison. They took several people out of the cell at a time for interrogation. They came back naked, with signs of torture…
Ali Muhammed Hasan al-Haidari (14 years old at the time of the events in Dujail): They arrested all of our family. There were 43 of us. It was the worst for my brothers. They were stripped and tortured right in front of me. They poured hot plastic on their skin. Then they shot many people… Once I saw Barzan and asked him to help us and said that we needed a doctor. He turned to his subordinates and told them not to think about medical aid for us. “That family deserves death,” he said.
Witness L.: I was 12 when they arrested me. My sister was a year younger. She was stripped and they began to beat her in front of me. Then they did the same thing to me… I saw Barzan Ibrahim beat my father… Then they sent us to Baghdad, to Abu Ghraib… When they brought us to the camp [on the border with Saudi Arabia, where relatives of the repressed were sent], not even my family recognized me, I had been beaten so badly.
From the Testimony of Witness for the Defense
Saddam Hussein: I ordered them to be tried… Then I signed the sentence. I ordered their houses to be destroyed and them to be deported… If it is a crime to try those who shoot at the president, then judge me.
Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti: I swear to God, I came there to free everyone… I reprimanded those who used unapproved methods of interrogation, who made unneeded arrests… There were 80 people in the building. I kissed every one of them, asked forgiveness of every one and ordered hat they all be freed.
Awad Hamed al-Bandar: During the trial, which lasted two weeks, all the accused confessed that acted on the orders of Iran, that they wanted an Iranian occupation of Iraq… They confessed that they attacked the president of the republic… I handed down death sentences in full compliance with the law.
Vyacheslav Belash
All the Article in Russian as of Nov. 13, 2006
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