Bush seeks Iraq trial for Saddam's henchman to ensure they get death penalty

Scotland on Sunday ^ | May 11, 2003 | IAN MATHER

[MadIvan]

AMERICA has begun legal moves that could lead to death sentences being passed against Iraq’s former leaders.

International lawyers and human rights groups say that the Bush administration is planning to try senior figures from Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraqi courts to ensure the death penalty can be imposed.

The US plans, unveiled last week, show that an international criminal tribunal, established under the auspices of the United Nations, has been rejected, as has trying Iraq’s former leaders under American law.

An international tribunal would not be allowed to impose capital punishment and the Iraqi leaders could be tried under US law only if they had committed crimes against American citizens.

Last week Clint Williamson, the US official adviser to the justice ministry in Iraqi, said: "People who committed crimes against the Iraqi people should be tried within the Iraqi system."

But Richard Dicker, an international law specialist with the group Human Rights Watch, warned: "An Iraqi-led, US-supported effort will not be impartial, independent or fair. It will be seen as ‘victor’s justice’.

"There is no independent judiciary in Iraq. It was destroyed by three decades of Ba’ath Party rule, and that’s something the US cannot just wish away with the wave of a wand."

Amnesty International wants the UN, working with Iraqis, to set up an international body similar to the tribunal for former Yugoslavia at the Hague.

"There should be no unilateral US or UK tribunals, not least because these risk setting a bad precedent for the development of international justice systems," said a spokesman.

The Bush administration is determined to have as little as possible to do with the UN. It refuses to accept the jurisdiction of the UN’s international criminal court, arguing that it could be used for political purposes against American service personnel or officials. Moreover, the ICC has no jurisdiction over crimes committed before it came into existence last July.

Yesterday, Mustapha Karkouti, a member of the London-based Royal Institute of International Affairs, said he believed there were unlikely to be many death sentences handed down against the members of Saddam’s regime. So far 19 have surrendered or been captured, the most prominent being Tariq Aziz, Saddam’s deputy prime minister.

He said: "I do not think that there is a risk of creating martyrs because only Saddam and a few of his senior henchmen who were involved in torture or intelligence would be sentenced to death.

"The majority even of the 55 most wanted leaders were functionaries who were not aware of what was going on."

He said that in practice the US had little choice about what to do with the former leaders. "These crimes were committed in Iraq against Iraqi people so they cannot be tried in a foreign court."

Charles Forrest, a lawyer and former State Department official, who heads a group trying to bring Iraqi leaders to justice, agreed that justice has to be carried out in Iraq.

"The long-term benefit of this process should be to form the basis for the rule of law in Iraq. If that’s going to happen, it has to be done in Iraq, and it’s got to be in Arabic. Otherwise, it’s just an exercise for the benefit of the human-rights activists and the international lawyers. I think the Iraqis are going to be pretty adamant that there should be a death penalty."

Mustafa Alani, an associate fellow of the London-based Royal United Services Institute, agreed. "Nobody should shy away from the imposition of the death penalty. There are people who carried out systematic torture over 30 to 40 years. These people should pay a very heavy price."

The US plan proposes a three-tier approach, with a top-tier tribunal to hear the cases against the 50 or so most senior members of the regime, and a second-tier tribunal to hear the cases against a larger number of regime figures accused of carrying out the worst atrocities.

The third tier would be set up as a "truth and reconciliation" commission, similar to the approach used in South Africa, to deal with minor regime officials and others who committed lesser crimes.

[MadIvan]

After World War II, the international tribunal executed Nazis. It's clear that Saddam's boys are just as bad as they are in intent, if not in execution. Bush is right: hang them, and damn the organisation that gets in the way.

Regards, Ivan

[MadIvan]

Bump!

[TigerLikesRooster]

Re #2

Under an international criminal tribunal, these criminals will be sentenced to life in "tennis camp" prison at most. Most Iraqis want them to be dead, posing no more lingering threats to Iraqis.

[Vigilanteman]

A good argument for setting up a tribunal right within Iraq, appointing pro-allied Kurdish jurists and trying and hanging them as we did the nazis . . . and screw the "international community" which did everything the could to obstruct justice.

[Grampa Dave]

Notice how the liberal lawyers in the UK and the US and those connected with the UN want their murdering buddies tried in Europe.

That would mean long and expensive show trials that would be used to embarass Tony and GW!

[Dog Gone]

"The majority even of the 55 most wanted leaders were functionaries who were not aware of what was going on."

Baloney. Everyone in Iraq knew what was going on.

[The Great Satan]

Anybody expect Tariq Aziz to be executed?