AMMAN, 17 October 2006 — A verdict against Saddam Hussein and seven codefendants charged with crimes against humanity in connection with an anti-Shiite crackdown in the 1980s will be announced Nov. 5, chief investigating judge Raid Juhi said yesterday. Sentences for those found guilty will be pronounced the same day, he said.
Saddam could be hanged if convicted. However, he could appeal the sentence to a higher court.
Saddam, meanwhile, has urged Iraqis to show “tolerance” toward those who betrayed them and expressed his readiness to forgive those who helped to kill his two sons Uday and Qusay in July 2003, head of the former leader’s defense team Khalil Dulaimi said yesterday.
Dulaimi told Arab News that he shared iftar (fast-breaking meal) with Saddam at his place of detention in Baghdad on Saturday. Also attending were former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark, another US attorney and Saddam’s Jordanian lawyer Issam Ghzawi. All four are members of the Amman-based defense team of the former Iraqi leader.
“We found the president in good health and in high spirit and our discussion focused on legal aspects of the trial,” Dulaimi said. He said he was asked by Saddam to relay to the Iraqis his first message since his arrest in December 2003, urging them “to show tolerance toward those who betrayed them and committed mistakes, provided they mend their ways.”
“The president called on Iraqis to end the sectarian fighting that has been ignited by the Americans and the Iranians and to put an end to settling of scores,” Dulaimi said.
The ousted Iraqi leader urged the continuation of resistance against the invaders “until the liberation of Iraq,” Dulaimi added. He warned his supporters that using excessive force against opponents of the insurgency would only culminate in wavering popular support for the anti-US resistance.
Saddam, who ruled Iraq with an iron fist for 23 years ending with his ouster in 2003, remains popular among hardcore remnants of his now-disbanded Baath party and small pockets of the once-dominant Sunni Arab minority of which he is a member.
On Sunday, 35 Sunni Arab tribal leaders from Kirkuk called for Saddam’s release in a meeting in which portraits of the former leader were hoisted along with banners declaring allegiance to him.
Saddam’s trial began a year ago with him and his codefendants facing charges arising from the deaths of nearly 150 Shiites in the town of Dujail after a 1982 assassination attempt against Saddam in the town north of Baghdad.
Saddam’s codefendants include his former deputy, Taha Yassin Ramadan, and his half brother and former intelligence chief Barzan Ibrahim Tikriti.
“The Dujail trial will resume Nov. 5 when the presiding judge will announce the verdict and the sentencing,” Juhi, the investigating judge, said.
Saddam is the chief defendant in another trial, facing genocide charges in connection with a government crackdown in the 1980s against Iraqi Kurds. The prosecution alleges about 180,000 people died in that campaign.
The brother of the chief prosecutor in that trial was murdered yesterday in west Baghdad. Emad Al-Faroon was returning to his home in the west Baghdad neighborhood of Al-Jamaa with his wife when he was surprised by gunmen and killed, said Ali Al-Lami, a close friend of Faroon.
“As they parked the car in the garage, the gunmen attacked and shot him dead in front of his wife,” said Lami, who is head of the de-Baathificaton committee set up soon after the US-led invasion to remove high-ranking members of the former ruling party from positions of power.
