KUWAIT, 1 July 2005 — The trial of Iraq’s former President Saddam Hussein could start within a couple of months, Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari said late on Wednesday. “We cannot pinpoint a specific date, maybe a month or two,” Jaafari told reporters at a late-night reception. “Maybe Aug. 15 or Sept. 15. But we have succeeded in making the deadline not to exceed three months, instead of being open-ended,” he added. August would be an earlier trial date than those Tribunal sources have said are likely — in principle the rules stipulate a 45-day delay between a judge referring a case for trial and the start of courtroom proceedings. The referral can only be made on completion of the investigative stage of the process.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari said last week the Special Tribunal questioning former regime loyalists about war crimes could begin the trial of Saddam by the end of 2005. Saddam and 11 of his top lieutenants, who lost power after a US-led invasion in 2003, are being held at a detention facility on the outskirts of Baghdad. They are all expected to be charged with genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during three decades in power.
President Jalal Talabani and other senior Iraqi officials have already in recent weeks expressed their hope that Saddam will come to trial within the next couple of months, but the Tribunal has been adamant in saying justice must not be rushed.
At the same time, over the past month the Tribunal has questioned at least 20 suspects and released video of several of them, including Saddam, being questioned, clearly keen to show it is pushing ahead with the judicial process.
Some senior officials, including powerful Shiite leader Abdelaziz Al-Hakim, have complained of “foreign interference” holding up the trial — apparently a reference to US involvement behind the scenes. Legal sources involved in the process have said Washington would prefer to wait to prepare a major war crimes trial, similar to those in The Hague, which might, among other things, bolster the administration’s case for invading Iraq.
The Iraqi government, however, says it is looking at ways to bring the former president to trial quickly, there is an election in December, and may try him for a lesser crime, such as the killings of dozens of Shiite villagers at Dujail in 1982.
Though limited in scope, officials say, such a case might more easily produce clear evidence of Saddam’s responsibility and open the way for him to be swiftly executed.
Saddam and several aides have already been questioned on the Dujail case — dozens of 140 villagers were killed after a failed assassination attempt on Saddam as his motorcade passed. Sources close to the Tribunal said recently that the investigative stage of the Dujail case could be completed by mid-August or so, at which point evidence would be presented to a trial judge, who would decide whether the case goes ahead.
