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Little testimony ties Saddam to crackdown
(AP)
Updated: 2006-02-05 09:33
After four months and 26 witnesses, prosecutors in the Saddam Hussein trial
have offered little credible testimony directly linking the former leader to the
killings and torture for which he's charged.
But legal experts familiar with the case say the best may be yet to come
— documents allegedly tying Saddam to the crackdown that followed an
assassination attempt against him 23 years ago in Dujail, a mainly Shiite town
north of Baghdad.
Without compelling evidence, a guilty verdict against Saddam may not provide
closure for victims of Saddam's atrocities. But the experts caution that the
documents — which include hand written notes, interrogation orders and death
sentences handed down by the Revolutionary Court — may not alone be enough to
win a conviction.
What is needed, they said, is to establish a clear chain of command that
would show Saddam would have known what happened to the more than 140 Shiites
killed and the others tortured after the 1982 attempt on the former ruler's life
in Dujail, north of Baghdad.
Former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein argues
with new chief judge, Rauf Rashid Abdel Rahman, held in Baghdad's heavily
fortified Green Zone, on January 29,
2006.[AFP/file] | The evidence to date — mostly testimony from people who were arrested and
allegedly tortured — has pointed to a brutal crackdown — but has not showed that
Saddam played a direct role. Saddam and the seven co-defendants, charged in the
Dujail killings, could face death by hanging if convicted.
"The testimonies we have heard so far are moving but they are not enough and
that's causing us concern," said Nehal Bhuta, a Human Rights Watch lawyer
following the Saddam trial.
"What is needed is evidence linking each of the eight defendants to what
happened or evidence that Saddam could not have not known," he said by telephone
from New York.
But the chief prosecutor maintains that he has the evidence to win a
conviction that will be accepted not only by those Iraqis who are eager to see
Saddam hang but also international legal institutions that have been skeptical
of an Iraqi trial from the start.
Prosecutor Jaafar al-Mousawi told The Associated Press that the case's
800-page dossier includes documents showing Saddam ordered interrogations,
executions and in some cases clemency.
"We have many such documents that we plan to present later in the trial," he
said.
However, defense lawyers, as well as some foreign legal organizations
monitoring the trial, say about a third of the documents are illegible after so
many years.
Trial testimony so far has linked Saddam's half brother and co-defendant,
Barzan Ibrahim, to the torture of Dujail residents in the Baghdad headquarters
of Mukhabarat, or intelligence agency, that he led at the time. Some witnesses
testified that Ibrahim had personally tortured them.
"Barzan is practically the top defendant in this case," said al-Mousawi.
Saddam's former deputy, Taha Yassin Ramadan, also has been implicated by
witnesses in the reprisal destruction of Dujail fruit orchards shortly after the
attempt on Saddam's life.
Marieka Wierda, a legal expert with the New York-based International Center
for Transitional Justice, said Saddam's defense could argue that his security
forces were not acting on his orders when they detained and tortured hundreds.
"But the prosecution could counter that by showing that torture was a
widespread practice at the time and Saddam could not have possibly not known
about it," Wierda said.
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