The lone witness
By Fatih Abdulsalam
Azzaman, October 21, 2005
The tribunal trying the former leader Saddam Hussein failed to produce what was said to be the only witness to the charges he was being tried for.
The witness, Waddah al-Sheikh, a former intelligence official, said to be dying of cancer, has reportedly agreed to testify in the trial.
Al-Sheikh was working for Mukhabarat, the main intelligence agency, in 1982 when 143 people were killed in Dujial.
If Al-Sheik is the key witness in the trial, how come the tribunal could not have him testify inside the court?
The judges and prosecutors could have had him interviewed before the trial in the presence of defense lawyers and produced the evidence in court.
To suspend the proceedings because the key witness could not appear did not go down well with the millions of Iraqis who were glued to their television screens on Wednesday.
Iraqis have been anxiously waiting for the trial only to find that the tribunal which has been preparing for the event for nearly two years fails to bring along the necessary testimony.
Do we only have one witness for the atrocities of Saddam Hussein and his regime?
There are thousands and thousands of Iraqis who would have rushed to the court and testified without fear against Saddam Hussein.
The proceedings raise more than one question mark. Iraqis wonder why the court insists on trying Saddam only for the Dujail killings at a time the list of his crimes is too numerous to be counted.
Many Iraqis say the killings in Dujail were connected with the members of a party in power currently in Iraq. This is why, they add, the authorities have focused on Dujail.
Saddam Hussein executed thousands of ordinary Iraqis who were members of no political party or faction. It was better for the court to start with these cases at least to do justice for the hapless relatives of these victims.
In this case no one would have attempted even to allege that the proceedings were somewhat politically orchestrated.
The killings in Dujail are a crime and any one involved in them must be tried and punished.
But to only try Saddam for these killings sends the wrong message to the relatives of tens of thousands of other victims.
And now the court itself goes to what it has described as the only witness on Dujail killings.
Al-Sheik will testify from his death bed hospital in seclusion without the glare of media cameras and most probably in the absence of defense lawyers, raising even more questions about the whole trial.
Sadam can take them all down, the bloody lot of them dont expect anything to come out of this joke of a trial
Link Here
Azzaman, October 21, 2005
The tribunal trying the former leader Saddam Hussein failed to produce what was said to be the only witness to the charges he was being tried for.
The witness, Waddah al-Sheikh, a former intelligence official, said to be dying of cancer, has reportedly agreed to testify in the trial.
Al-Sheikh was working for Mukhabarat, the main intelligence agency, in 1982 when 143 people were killed in Dujial.
If Al-Sheik is the key witness in the trial, how come the tribunal could not have him testify inside the court?
The judges and prosecutors could have had him interviewed before the trial in the presence of defense lawyers and produced the evidence in court.
To suspend the proceedings because the key witness could not appear did not go down well with the millions of Iraqis who were glued to their television screens on Wednesday.
Iraqis have been anxiously waiting for the trial only to find that the tribunal which has been preparing for the event for nearly two years fails to bring along the necessary testimony.
Do we only have one witness for the atrocities of Saddam Hussein and his regime?
There are thousands and thousands of Iraqis who would have rushed to the court and testified without fear against Saddam Hussein.
The proceedings raise more than one question mark. Iraqis wonder why the court insists on trying Saddam only for the Dujail killings at a time the list of his crimes is too numerous to be counted.
Many Iraqis say the killings in Dujail were connected with the members of a party in power currently in Iraq. This is why, they add, the authorities have focused on Dujail.
Saddam Hussein executed thousands of ordinary Iraqis who were members of no political party or faction. It was better for the court to start with these cases at least to do justice for the hapless relatives of these victims.
In this case no one would have attempted even to allege that the proceedings were somewhat politically orchestrated.
The killings in Dujail are a crime and any one involved in them must be tried and punished.
But to only try Saddam for these killings sends the wrong message to the relatives of tens of thousands of other victims.
And now the court itself goes to what it has described as the only witness on Dujail killings.
Al-Sheik will testify from his death bed hospital in seclusion without the glare of media cameras and most probably in the absence of defense lawyers, raising even more questions about the whole trial.
Sadam can take them all down, the bloody lot of them dont expect anything to come out of this joke of a trial
Link Here
posted by Kangaroo Brisbane Australia at 11:26 PM
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