AMMAN, 29 September 2006 — The Amman-based defense team of the ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein yesterday labeled his trial before an Iraqi criminal court on genocide charges as a “farce”, and urged intervention by the world’s human rights organizations to stop it.
“We call upon the world public opinion with all its organizations to work to stop this farce,” the panel said in a statement to the media.
The statement said that last week’s practices by the newly-appointed chief judge Mohammad Al-Oreibi “proved that this trial is a theater and that it represents a kind of the victor’s justice and an act of revenge against Iraq’s legitimate leader and his comrades”.
“The trial has nothing to do with law or with seeking justice, a value which is being crushed by the invasion troops,” it added.
Saddam was on Tuesday thrown out of the courtroom for the third time in a week after a fight with Oreibi, who succeeded Abdullah Al-Amiri last week.
Al-Amiri, a Shiite, was fired by Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki after saying that he did not consider Saddam a dictator, during a cordial exchange with the former leader. The move prompted the defense team to boycott the tribunal’s sessions.
“This court is very far from law or sound judicial proceedings. It is an instrument in the hands of the politicians and occupiers of Iraq intended to quench the thirst for revenge against the president, his comrades and the Iraqi people,” the defense team said.
It cited the government’s “overt intervention” to dismiss former chief judges Rizgar Amin and Saeed Hammashi and the murder of at least four defense lawyers as factors impeding a fair trial.
“The judges, the prosecutors and the personnel of the court were vetted to their posts on the grounds of political, sectarian or ideological considerations,” the panel said.
Saddam and six of his former associates are on trial for war crimes allegedly committed during the 1987-1988 Anfal campaign, in which tens of thousands of Kurds who were reportedly killed.
Saddam’s defense team is headed by Iraqi lawyer Khalil Duleimi and includes some prominent Arab and non-Arab lawyers including former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark, former French Foreign Minister Roland Dumas and former Algerian President Ahmed Bin Bella.
