Posted on 09/14/2006 8:16:56 PM PDT by indcons
THE judge in Saddam Hussein's genocide trial said yesterday that he did not think the fallen Iraqi leader was a "dictator".
Abdulla al-Amiri made his comments a day after prosecutors demanded his resignation, complaining that he was too soft on Saddam, who had threatened to "crush the heads" of his accusers. They also complained he let Saddam make long speeches in court.
Questioning a Kurdish farmer who testified he had secured a face-to-face audience with Saddam in 1988 and begged him to spare the lives of his wife and seven children, the former president said: "If I'm a dictator, why did you come to see me?"
Amiri, who has compared his approach to the trial as that of a referee seeking "fairness", then addressed Saddam politely, saying: "You are not a dictator. It is the people who surround a man who make him a dictator." He did not elaborate.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.scotsman.com ...
Visibly pleased, Saddam uttered a respectful "thank you" and then retook his seat in the Baghdad courtroom.
Hmmm...this is very interesting indeed. The news accounts of the Kurd whose family was wiped out by Saddam were sad. This judge asked the witness if the latter was expecting any compensation for his family's death!
Is this judge perhaps on loan from the Ninth Circus Court? :^)
Arab culture. The head of state is not to blame, only subordinates.
It is just one more reason the culture must be destroyed.
Kind of like having Jamie Gorelick on the 9-11 "Commision".
An idiot judge, to figure.
This trial is sheer lunacy.
Wasn't this an issue with the Weimar republic in pre-Hitler germany? They put in a new democratic government but left the old hardliners in the judiciary? What are we going to do if they acquit him?
We should've bronzed him and put him in the middle of Baghdad the moment we found him.
Placing Saddam on trial was a big mistake. It was supposed to cast him in the light of evil dictator for all the world to see, but it's merely been a stage for him to express his personal points of view, and for America to look bad as his defense lawyers get executed, one by one. Now the chief Judge declares to the world that Saddam was not a dictator after all, that he was merely made to look bad by those who surrounded him. Why is this man still alive anyway?
The judge is collaborating with a defendent in a capital punishment case. He should be hung with Saddam.
Agree. I don't think there is a jury, is there? Does this judge render Saddam guilty or innocent? If that's the case, the attorneys should go for a mistrial quick!
Maybe this judge is practicing a little CYA, expecting our troops to be yanked out at nay time and leaving Saddam free to return to power.
With all the leftie rhetoric being blasted all over, one can only imagine what fears it instills on the Iraqis.
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