Does Anyone Else Consider The Saddam Trial A Mockery ?

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BBC News said:
Saddam Hussein has been thrown out of court for the second time in a week, as defence lawyers boycotted the trial.
Judge Muhammad Oreibi al-Khalifa ordered the former Iraqi leader to leave after refusing his request to be let out of his metal cage.

Meanwhile the court heard from witnesses that Kurds were gassed with chemicals, raped and tortured during the late 1980s.

Saddam Hussein and six others are being tried for crimes against humanity.

The BBC's Jim Muir in Baghdad says the trial had resumed surprisingly quietly and calmly despite last week's drama.

I have a request here that I don't want to be in this cage any more

Saddam Hussein

Timeline: Anfal trial

The judge provided court-appointed lawyers for the defendants for Monday's session.

An elderly Kurdish man gave evidence about events in his village in 1988, when the Baghdad government was mounting a campaign against the Kurds in which scores of thousands are known to have died.

Mohammed Rasul Mustafa, 65, said he had witnessed the bombing of a nearby village and smelled a strange odour like apples which appeared to give him breathing difficulties.

After being captured Mr Mustafa said he was imprisoned for five months, during which he saw guards "kill a man with a steel cable".

'Tortured every day'

A second witness, Rifat Mohammed Said, said he was held at the same Nugrat Salman prison camp, where children were dying of starvation and a guard called Hajaj tortured and raped detainees.

"Hajaj was beating us every day, he was torturing us every day," he said.

"The girls came back crying and told us they had been raped," he added.

While questioning one of the witnesses, defendant Sabir al-Douri - Saddam's former military intelligence chief - referred to another of the accused by his military rank, angering the judge.

At this point, Saddam Hussein waved a piece of yellow paper and said: "I have a request here that I don't want to be in this cage any more."

"I'm the presiding judge. I decide about your presence here. Get him out!" Judge al-Khalifa responded.

"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."

Special permission

Defence lawyers staying away from the trial have indicated that they could return to the courtroom if some of their demands are met, our correspondent says.

These include giving foreign lawyers the right to speak in court. They currently have to seek special permission to enter the courtroom.

Some of the defence team have said they could continue the boycott indefinitely.

Saddam Hussein is being tried on charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity in relation to the Anfal military campaign in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq in the late 1980s.

He faces the death penalty if found guilty.

Does anyone else find this trial to be an absolute sham ? Tried in Iraq by US appointed or supported authorities.

Anyone with any iota of sense would have had this trial viathe International War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague to ensure impartiality and limit criticism. Judges have been killed, lawyers have been killed and this farce of a trial seems to never end.

Anyone got any thoughts ?

More links at bbc.co.uk/news
 
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It should have been in the Hague from the beginning. Trouble is its one rule for the Americans and another for the rest of us.
 
Completely. They should have thrown him on the street the day they caught him and let him get "shoed" to death there and then. It is afterall a show trial and really a waste of money and time, as the outcome is inevitable isnt it..

I dont think anyone in the west really cares anymore anyway? I certainly dont. I just wonder how long it will drag till the firing squad?

He will prolly get to take the cowards way out anyway and be found hung in his cell or with a self inflicted bullet in the head.
 
Von Smallhausen said:
Does anyone else find this trial to be an absolute sham ? Tried in Iraq by US appointed or supported authorities.

Anyone with any iota of sense would have had this trial viathe International War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague to ensure impartiality and limit criticism. Judges have been killed, lawyers have been killed and this farce of a trial seems to never end.

Anyone got any thoughts ?

More links at bbc.co.uk/news

I agree it should have been in the Hague - but that would add credibility to the ICC, which the US are famously anti....
 
Efour2 said:
Completely. They should have thrown him on the street the day they caught him and let him get "shoed" to death there and then.

Wouldnt that make *us* pretty much as guilty as we allege him to be?

Namely that we dont respect the rule of law and the authority of the courts?
 
Efour2 said:
Completely. They should have thrown him on the street the day they caught him and let him get "shoed" to death there and then. It is afterall a show trial and really a waste of money and time, as the outcome is inevitable isnt it..

I like your way of thinking :cool:
 
Accidents happen, he could have been shot whilst trying to escape.

No one followed the rules and authority in this entire "illegal war"

Be it in the Hague or the sham that it is, It dosn't matter.

I really doubt he would acknowledge the legality authority of any court on Earth, when he was deposed by an invading army.

The verdict was set on him the day the first US tank drove on iraqi soil/sand.

get him shot, and move on. Concentrate on the mess of iraq we made instead.

DEATH BY SHOE!
 
The more I think about it, the more happy I'd be to put Saddam back in charge and make friends with him again, let him firstly sort out Iraq, then get him to do our dirty work in Iran.
 
scorza said:
The more I think about it, the more happy I'd be to put Saddam back in charge and make friends with him again, let him firstly sort out Iraq, then get him to do our dirty work in Iran.

If someone killed your 2 sons, Killed your army, took you out of Power, Confiscated millions of your dollars. Do you think you would forgive them enough to attack another country for them?

The way Saddam ruled was rule by terror, If you didnt do what he liked or what pleased him or his family he would have you and your family shot and torchered and your wife and daughters raped.
Now if the US were allowed to rule with terror then im sure they could keep the country under control perfectly fine but they dont because they arnt allowed to and it does give the people of Iraq some more Freedom and the people are aloud to speak there own minds and do things and not be scared of being killed if they speak against something or lose a game of soccer or not win a gold medal
 
scorza said:
The more I think about it, the more happy I'd be to put Saddam back in charge and make friends with him again, let him firstly sort out Iraq, then get him to do our dirty work in Iran.

Currently deaths are at about 100 a week, about 5200 a year. When Saddam was in power the average was 60,000 deaths a year. If you want to increase the deaths by 55000 and sentence every single Kurd and whoever else he fancys killing to death then by all means put Saddam back in power.

On a more sensible note, Yes i think the trial is a Mockery of a sham of a mockery. To be honest it's a lose lose situation no matter how it's done.
As much as i read and as much as i know i am at a loss as to how it should all be handled.
 
malc30 said:
Currently deaths are at about 100 a week, about 5200 a year. When Saddam was in power the average was 60,000 deaths a year. If you want to increase the deaths by 55000 and sentence every single Kurd and whoever else he fancys killing to death then by all means put Saddam back in power.
really? link?

B@Th*nG
 
B@Th*nG said:
really? link?

B@Th*nG

There isn't any. If you have a look at the yearly reports from both AI and HRW you will see that from around 1998 to the invasion SH was prolly killing several hundred maybe even around a thousand a year at most....nowhere near the 50,000 figure quoted.

Just another lie that has now become "fact".
 
He should have been treated like Nicolae Ceauşescu: quick trial by his countrymen, then taken out and shot.

At least Slobodan Milošević had the good grace to save us a few quid by having a heart attack.

We are spending millions upon millions in a vain attempt to show the world that justice is being done, why? ....... the rest of the world will not believe anything about this war so why should they believe this farce?
 
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