Saddam to be handed over to Governing Council court: Bremer

[kskiska]

Ousted dictator Saddam Hussein remains in Iraq and will be handed over to a special court being set up by the US-appointed Governing Council to face charges of genocide and invasion of neighbouring countries, US administrator Paul Bremer said in an interview published on Saturday.

"Saddam is in Iraq now, and yes he will be tried publicly by a special Iraqi court when the prerequisites for setting up such a court are completed," Mr Bremer told the Arabic-language daily Asharq Al-Awsat.

"The Governing Council has started setting up the special court and we have spent some funds on that and he (Saddam) will be tried publicly after bringing charges of mass killing and invading neighbouring countries against him."

"Saddam will be handed over to the Governing Council after it finishes setting up the court."

Asked if Saddam was cooperating with investigators, Mr Bremer replied: "He is not cooperating, but he is not a troublemaker either."

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http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s1035597.htm

[Whoa_Nelly]

1. Dupe

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=340428

[rogerashton]

2. This will be a revolutionary tribunal.

Of course, the U. S. constitution is not binding on the governing council of Iraq (on whom is it binding, by the way, if anybody?) but the constitutional principle of no ex post facto laws makes revolutionary tribunals pretty questionable. Such tribunals always end up accusing people of things that were not illegal when they were done.

And it is not clear that Saddam's actions were illegal under Iraqi law at the time. The massacre of the Shiites, for example, was a response to a rebellion in favor of the enemy in wartime. I can think of few states in which repression of such a rebellion by odious means would be illegal: consider the British bombardment of Dublin during the Irish rebellion and WWI, and consider Sherman's march through Georgia.

Saddam might be found guilty of crimes against humanity, but an Iraqi tribunal has no standing to accuse him of such things. The court that has such standing is in the Hague.

Of course, it is probable that many individual murders, political murders, took place during the dictatorship that were against the law then on the books. Dictatorships usually scoff at their own laws. But providing real proof that Saddam was complicit in them would be very difficult. Dictators always blame these things on "overzealous underlings" at the lowest level -- and probably are ignorant of the details of most of them. It is a terrible moral wrong to preside over such a government, probably a crime against humanity in itself, but that brings us back to the Hague. But proving individual criminality? Hardly likely!

So what this "court" will do is stage a show trial without much pretense of law or evidence and hustle Saddam off the guillotine or its functional equivalent. I wonder if the squatter has ever heard the old saying "Sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander?"

[MikeG]

3. Hey, isn't it time to de-louse him again?

[Moderator]

4. Duplicate

Continue here please

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=340428