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Saddam trial process opens with 'Chemical Ali'
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-12-19 13:26
War crimes trials against Saddam Hussein and his closest lieutenants moved
forward on Saturday when his feared cousin known as "Chemical Ali" was the first
to face a formal interview with the chief investigating magistrate.
Saddam
Hussein's cousin and feared lieutenant Ali Hassan
al-Majid, known as 'Chemical Ali' appears before Chief Investigative Judge
Ra'id Juhi of the Iraqi Special Tribunal, at an undisclosed courtroom in
Baghdad, December 18, 2004.
[Reuters] |
Iraq's U.S.-backed
government had promised trials would begin before next month's election, the
first free vote since Saddam rose to power three decades ago. But the judge
stressed his meetings with Ali Hassan al-Majid and the former defense minister
Sultan Hashem were just the start of a long process.
"Hurrying will not help this case," Raed Jouhi said.
Official and silent film of the two hearings showed both men looking relaxed,
chatting and smiling under guard. Majid leant on a walking stick, possibly still
suffering from wounds sustained while on the run from invading U.S. forces last
year.
Some Iraqi officials have dismissed the publicity as little more than an
election campaign ploy by Prime Minister Iyad Allawi. However that may be, the
67-year-old ousted dictator and his aides have now been given access to lawyers.
After brief appearances in July to hear possible charges of crimes against
humanity and genocide against Kurds gassed by troops under Majid's control, the
formal process of deciding who is tried for what is under way, a year after
Saddam was caught.
The Jan. 30 election will furnish a national assembly that will draw up a new
constitution and, Washington hopes, give Iraq a legitimate government to replace
the de facto U.S. rule that filled the vacuum left by the overthrow of the Baath
Party.
U.S. officials concede an insurgency among Saddam's Sunni Arab minority poses
the major threat to the chances of forming a representative legislature. Three
election offices in Sunni northern Iraq came under attack in the latest
incidents.
ELECTION OFFICES HIT
Two people were killed and eight were wounded, including six National Guards,
when mortars landed on an election office in Dujail, 30 miles north of Baghdad.
It is one of many around the country registering and educating voters.
A mortar also landed on an election office in the northern oil capital of
Kirkuk, where ethnic tensions among Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen are high ahead of a
poll many want delayed locally.
National Guards fought off gunmen who attacked an election office 60 km
southwest of Kirkuk.
Saboteurs who are hampering efforts to restore Iraq's oil wealth and
contributing to a cold winter without heat and light for many, blew up a key oil
export pipeline near Kirkuk, halting flows for the second time in a week.
In the big northern city of Mosul, scene of widespread bloodshed in recent
weeks, seven children in a school bus were hit when a roadside bomb missed a
U.S. patrol. One child died.
The Turkish foreign ministry said several guards from its Baghdad embassy
were killed in Mosul on Friday and others were missing. Witnesses saw four
people killed in one car, apparently Turks.
REPRESENTATION CONCERNS
"We recognize that there are some real concerns," a Western official,
briefing reporters this week on condition of anonymity, said of the need to
secure an election for which U.S. troop numbers are being increased by some 10
percent to 150,000.
Asked what would happen if, as some Sunni leaders fear and others are
encouraging, the 20 percent Sunni Arab minority stays or is kept away from the
polling stations, the official said:
"Clearly we want a representative assembly. What will happen if there isn't
sufficient Sunni participation for this to be representative I wouldn't want to
speculate."
A lack of Sunni voters would boost the share of the Shi'ite 60 percent and
the Kurds, who account for up to 15 percent.
Shi'ite clerics have rejected accusations from Allawi's secular allies that
they are a stalking horse for Iranian-style rule by Shi'ite ayatollahs -- a line
taken up by U.S. officials who say Iraqi clerics prefer secular rule.
President Bush has already warned U.S. adversaries in Tehran not to
interfere.
Jouhi told reporters there was no set timetable for the trials, each of which
will be prepared by different judges.
Majid and Hashem appeared in turn, both being released from handcuffs and
seated on a folding chair in a bare room before Jouhi's desk, on which lay a
Koran wrapped in green cloth.
Jouhi, who presided over the brief hearings for Saddam and the others in
July, said both men on Saturday had legal counsel.
One of the defense lawyers declined to speak to reporters for fear of
reprisals. Many Iraqis want summary justice for their former leaders, who they
say have the blood of tens of thousands on their hands; the former U.S.
occupying authority abolished the death penalty and Iraq has yet to bring it
back.
Saddam saw a lawyer for the first time on Thursday, just over a year since he
was captured on Dec. 13, 2003.
Majid earned his soubriquet for his role in using poison gas against Kurds in
the 1980s; some 5,000 died at Halabja in 1988.
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