Posted on 12/31/2006 9:48:00 AM PST by Chi-townChief
Saddam Hussein's trials and his march to the gallows were intended to be turning points in Iraq's history in which justice was delivered on behalf of hundreds of thousands of people killed by the dictator's brutal regime.
But for many human-rights advocates and legal experts who followed the trials, Hussein's rapid conviction and execution instead left them with doubts about the emerging Iraqi government and the fairness of its judicial process.
Hussein died on the gallows in Baghdad on Saturday, less than two months after an Iraqi court sentenced him to death for the killings of 148 Shiite Muslims in Dujail and just four days after the Iraqi appeals court upheld the verdict. Witnesses said he was buried Sunday near his hometown of Tikrit. Even some American advisers who helped set up the new judiciary after Hussein's fall reportedly were surprised by the speed of the process.
Few denied that Hussein was guilty of war crimes and atrocities against his own people, and many said the execution reflected the heartfelt desire of the Iraqi people. President Bush said in a statement that Hussein "was executed after receiving a fair trial--the kind of justice he denied victims of his brutal regime."
Yet in the end, critics said, the flawed trials and the swift appeals process suggested that the system did little more than provide victors' justice, delivered by a Shiite-dominated government against a Sunni Arab who repressed Shiites for more than two decades.
The execution in the Dujail case also will minimize the impact of the second trial of Hussein on even more grievous charges of killing tens of thousands of Kurds in northern Iraq.
amadhani@tribune.com
thundley@tribune.com
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...
Yeah that was a real quick trial. /s
Give me a break!
Why do some Freepers here still contend that the Tribune is a conservative paper?
What I don't get is why NO ONE is countering the questioning of the media about "why the rush to execute him" with the fact that they HAD to execute him before April 28th, when he turned 70, since under Iraqi law they would not be allowed to execute him then. If anyone deserved the death penalty, it was him! That's "WHY" the rush, idiots.....
If it had taken 10-20 years to actually carry out the death sentence, like it does in this country, they STILL would have been against it!
....and thankfully so.
For the "too quick" crowd on this and other Iraq-related subjects-please recall, (even though he was trouble before this) most of us had relatives or people we knew in the region preparing for the mother of all battles SIXTEEN YEARS ago this month.
This is a valid concern. It is not necessary to get even slightly into conspiracy theory since the UN Oil For Food scandal is still out there, as well as various other contracts by various Euro countries.
Germany hung its former leaders in less than a year or there about ....
Heck if he were in this country, he would have either been pardoned by the next democrat president or he would have been up for parole in 15-20 years for 'good behaviour' http://sacredscoop.com
Funny thing about the left. They don't seem to know what they want.
For many months we hear them say the Iraqis need to take charge of matters and withdraw our troops. The Iraqis need to run their own country without US assistance. Yet, once they do, now the left cries about them not doing it properly, too swift, not according to the 'feelings' of the left.
I believe the only real consistency from the left is their inconsistency
Let's see, we help Iraq set up this "democracy" of theirs and they figure out how to execute a murderer without years and years of appeal after appeal? Hmm...
Agreed. Next you know the lefties will be crying that the hanging was "cruel and unusual".
What are you talking about? The Allied powers held the trials and it was an American who hanged the convicted Nazis.
The Germans in later trials against Nazis, mostly gave short prison sentences.
And piss on his victims.
Dead men tell no tales.
Or as Kofi Annan might say: "What Food for Oil scam?"
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