US lawyer slams Saddam trial as prejudiced
Web posted at: 11/5/2006 8:17:30
Source ::: REUTERS AMMAN • A death sentence on Saddam Hussein for crimes against humanity would deliver “victor’s justice” that would fuel violence in Iraq for decades, former US attorney general Ramsey Clark said yesterday. “It’s an unfair trial in more ways than you can count. Where have we seen a trial take place in the midst of such uncontrollable violence?” Clark said. Saddam will almost certainly receive the death sentence today when the court is due to deliver its verdict, said Clark who leads a team of international lawyers defending Saddam. He described the court as prejudiced and lacking impartiality, and said it had already condemned the ousted Iraqi president for killing 148 Shi’ite villagers after an attempt on his life in 1982. “To let there be worse than victors’ justice and the revenge of all enemies at a time like this for Iraq is something history and humanity should not have to bear,” Clark said before flying to Baghdad. “It will create violence maybe for generations to come. “The trial will go down in history as politically forced, it was a disaster for justice. It just went on for too long with lawyers killed and judges kicked off,” said Clark. The government has urged a rapid conviction and hanging for Saddam whose Sunni-dominated administration oppressed the Shi’ite and Kurdish communities, who now dominate political power. “When you think of all the things people have said, it’s very difficult to see anything happening except a death sentence,” Clark said. The veteran anti-war campaigner, who first met Saddam before the 1991 Gulf War, was among the last Westerners to see him weeks before the US-led invasion in March 2003. Clark said Saddam should be tried by an independent UN-sponsored court and he was scathing about the Saddam verdict coming only two days before US mid-term elections. “We call it the corruption of justice, the abuse of the judicial system for political ends. It’s a crime and a very serious crime because it impacts on the integrity of government,” he said. A death sentence would not only deepen divisions but would prove to Iraqis aggrieved by the US occupation that there was no other way than a fight to the bitter end, Clark said. “It’s now or never for us and posterity ..they will see there is no compromise, no fairness... so it’s a struggle to the death,” Clark said.
The Iraq Special Tribunal has finally sentenced the deposed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to death by hanging over the killings of 148 villagers in the town of Dujail in 1982.

Hussein was charged with crimes against humanity for ordering the killings after a failed assassination attempt was made on him in the mostly Shiite town.

Of his seven co-defendants in the trial, the former head of the Iraqi secret police, Hussein's half-brother Barzan al-Tikriti and the former chief judge of the Revolutionary Court, Awad Hamed al-Bandar were also sentenced to death. Former vice-president Taha Yassin Ramadan was sentenced to life in prison, three other officials received 15 years in prison and one was acquitted.