Saddam’s trial continues

The courtroom will be the same but uncertainty surrounds nearly everything else as the trial of Saddam Hussein resumes today after a five-week recess.Will the court grant a defence request for a three-month postponement? Will witnesses testify behind screens to shield their identities? Will Saddam’s foreign lawyers, including former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark, be allowed to attend the trial?

Even the precise time for convening the session was kept secret – for fear of attacks by supporters and opponents of the ousted ruler.Tight security surrounded the entire proceedings, which are restarting in the same specially built courtroom in the heavily guarded Green Zone where the first session was held October 19.

Underscoring the need for such measures, police announced yesterday that they had arrested eight Sunni Arabs for allegedly plotting to kill the court official who prepared the indictment charging Saddam and seven co-defendants with crimes against humanity.

The eight alleged plotters were apprehended on Saturday in the northern city of Kirkuk, police Col Anwar Qadir said.

He said they were carrying written instructions from a former top Saddam deputy, Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, ordering them to kill investigating judge Raed Juhi, who submitted the charges to the trial court in July.

Al-Douri is the highest ranking member of the Saddam regime still at large and is believed to be at least the symbolic leader of Saddam loyalists fighting US forces and Iraq’s new government.

“As an Iraqi citizen and a judge, I am vulnerable to assassination attempts,” Juhi said. “If I thought about this danger, then I would not be able to perform my job … I will practice my profession in a way that serves my country and satisfies my conscience.”

Saddam and seven co-defendants are charged in the killing of more than 140 Shiite Muslims after an assassination attempt against the former president in the Shiite town of Dujail in 1982. Convictions could bring a sentence of death by hanging.

Insecurity from the predominantly Sunni insurgency has complicated efforts to put Saddam on trial and forced draconian measures. For example, names of four of the five trial judges have been kept secret and some of the 35 witnesses may testify behind curtains to protect them from reprisal.

Defence lawyers had threatened to boycott the proceedings after two of their colleagues were slain in two attacks following the opening session on October 19.

However, lawyer Khamees al-Ubaidi said the defence team would attend after an agreement with US and Iraqi authorities on improving security for them.

On the eve of the hearing, Clark and former Qatari Justice Minister Najib al-Nueimi flew to the capital from Amman, Jordan, to lend weight to the defence team. Both have been advising Saddam’s lawyers and support their call to have the trial moved out of Iraq because of the violence.

However, neither Clark nor al-Nueimi has been officially recognised by the court as legal counsel. US and Iraqi officials said Saddam’s chief lawyer, Khalil al-Dulaimi, did not officially request permission for any foreign attorneys to attend the trial.

Iraqi law permits foreign lawyers to act as advisers but requires that those arguing cases in court must be members of the local bar association.

Clark, who served as attorney general under President Lyndon B. Johnson, wrote last month that Saddam’s rights had been systematically violated since his December 2003 capture, including his right “to a lawyer of his own choosing”.

Clark and others say a fair trial is impossible in Iraq because of the insurgency and because, they argue, the country is effectively under foreign military occupation. US and Iraqi officials insist the trial will conform to international standards.

Still, the trial has unleashed passions in an Iraqi society deeply divided in its judgment of Saddam and his rule, reports Ireland Online. I.L.