Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
USA Today
April 29, 2008
Pg. 6
Dozens from regime await their day before tribunal
By Andrea Stone, USA Today
BAGHDAD — After Saddam Hussein, no other member of Iraq's former regime is more famous than Tariq Aziz, his deputy prime minister.
Today, Saddam's chief international envoy — last seen in public in 2006 ardently defending the dictator at his war crimes trial — will go on trial himself on charges of ordering the execution of 42 Baghdad merchants.
More than a year after Saddam's hanging Dec. 30, 2006, and five years after the fall of his regime, the work of the Iraqi Special Tribunal is far from over. Dozens of Saddam's former henchmen remain in a U.S. military prison near here awaiting trial.
Many were among 55 leaders featured in the Pentagon's "most-wanted" deck of cards. Aziz, Iraq's former foreign minister, was No. 43, the eight of spades. He surrendered to U.S. forces soon after Baghdad fell in April 2003.
Aziz and six others are the fourth group of senior leaders to face the special tribunal on charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. The group includes Saddam's cousin, Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as "Chemical Ali," who is already condemned to die for using poison gas against Kurds in 1988.
The cigar-chomping Aziz was one of Saddam's most trusted advisers for more than 35 years.
"Aziz was the public face of the regime," said Michael Scharf, a law professor at Case Western Reserve University who helped train tribunal judges and prosecutors. "He came across as articulate, reasonable and persuasive, while he spent years lying to the international community."
Aziz, 72, could face the death penalty if found guilty for his role in the execution in 1992 of dozens of merchants accused of manipulating food prices, which soared after the United Nations imposed economic sanctions on Iraq for invading Kuwait.
His lawyer, Badie Aref, called the charges "a lie" and said the Iraqi government "kept him in prison for five years trying to find something against him, but they couldn't, so they fabricated this."
The U.S. government played a major role in establishing the Iraqi-run court, contributing $75 million and training for judges and lawyers.
The tribunal's first trial opened Oct. 19, 2005, when Saddam and seven others faced charges in the massacre of 148 Shiites in the town of Dujail.
The year-long trial included outbursts and courtroom boycotts by Saddam and his co-defendants, who rejected the legitimacy of the tribunal.
Aziz, looking frail and wearing a hospital gown, appeared as Saddam's first defense witness. He called the dictator "a man of the law" and gushed about his generosity and courage.
Saddam and two others were convicted and sentenced to death Nov. 5, 2006.
A fourth person, Taha Yassin Ramadan, Iraq's former vice president, was sentenced to life in prison, but an appeals court ruled he should be hanged.
A second trial focused on the genocide against Iraq's Kurdish minority in the 1980s, in which at least 100,000 people died, many by poison gas. Three people, including Chemical Ali, were sentenced in June 2007 to hang. Their executions have not been carried out.
Trials are underway for Chemical Ali and 14 others in the suppression of the Shiite uprising in 1991 that left tens of thousands dead.
Scharf expects at least three other cases after today's trial, including one on war crimes in Kuwait during the Persian Gulf War. He said 100 defendants could be tried over three years.
Human rights groups have criticized the trials for violating fair-trial guidelines and imposing the death penalty, when tribunals in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda did not.
"The tribunal's proceedings have not served the cause of reconciliation, and the sectarian gloating that marked Saddam Hussein's execution probably served just the opposite end," said Joseph Logan of Human Rights Watch.
April 29, 2008
Pg. 6
Dozens from regime await their day before tribunal
By Andrea Stone, USA Today
BAGHDAD — After Saddam Hussein, no other member of Iraq's former regime is more famous than Tariq Aziz, his deputy prime minister.
Today, Saddam's chief international envoy — last seen in public in 2006 ardently defending the dictator at his war crimes trial — will go on trial himself on charges of ordering the execution of 42 Baghdad merchants.
More than a year after Saddam's hanging Dec. 30, 2006, and five years after the fall of his regime, the work of the Iraqi Special Tribunal is far from over. Dozens of Saddam's former henchmen remain in a U.S. military prison near here awaiting trial.
Many were among 55 leaders featured in the Pentagon's "most-wanted" deck of cards. Aziz, Iraq's former foreign minister, was No. 43, the eight of spades. He surrendered to U.S. forces soon after Baghdad fell in April 2003.
Aziz and six others are the fourth group of senior leaders to face the special tribunal on charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. The group includes Saddam's cousin, Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as "Chemical Ali," who is already condemned to die for using poison gas against Kurds in 1988.
The cigar-chomping Aziz was one of Saddam's most trusted advisers for more than 35 years.
"Aziz was the public face of the regime," said Michael Scharf, a law professor at Case Western Reserve University who helped train tribunal judges and prosecutors. "He came across as articulate, reasonable and persuasive, while he spent years lying to the international community."
Aziz, 72, could face the death penalty if found guilty for his role in the execution in 1992 of dozens of merchants accused of manipulating food prices, which soared after the United Nations imposed economic sanctions on Iraq for invading Kuwait.
His lawyer, Badie Aref, called the charges "a lie" and said the Iraqi government "kept him in prison for five years trying to find something against him, but they couldn't, so they fabricated this."
The U.S. government played a major role in establishing the Iraqi-run court, contributing $75 million and training for judges and lawyers.
The tribunal's first trial opened Oct. 19, 2005, when Saddam and seven others faced charges in the massacre of 148 Shiites in the town of Dujail.
The year-long trial included outbursts and courtroom boycotts by Saddam and his co-defendants, who rejected the legitimacy of the tribunal.
Aziz, looking frail and wearing a hospital gown, appeared as Saddam's first defense witness. He called the dictator "a man of the law" and gushed about his generosity and courage.
Saddam and two others were convicted and sentenced to death Nov. 5, 2006.
A fourth person, Taha Yassin Ramadan, Iraq's former vice president, was sentenced to life in prison, but an appeals court ruled he should be hanged.
A second trial focused on the genocide against Iraq's Kurdish minority in the 1980s, in which at least 100,000 people died, many by poison gas. Three people, including Chemical Ali, were sentenced in June 2007 to hang. Their executions have not been carried out.
Trials are underway for Chemical Ali and 14 others in the suppression of the Shiite uprising in 1991 that left tens of thousands dead.
Scharf expects at least three other cases after today's trial, including one on war crimes in Kuwait during the Persian Gulf War. He said 100 defendants could be tried over three years.
Human rights groups have criticized the trials for violating fair-trial guidelines and imposing the death penalty, when tribunals in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda did not.
"The tribunal's proceedings have not served the cause of reconciliation, and the sectarian gloating that marked Saddam Hussein's execution probably served just the opposite end," said Joseph Logan of Human Rights Watch.