|
Saddam trial judge plans to quit { December 2005 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=fundLaunches&storyID=2006-01-13T215858Z_01_KWA379084_RTRUKOC_0_US-IRAQ.xmlhttp://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=fundLaunches&storyID=2006-01-13T215858Z_01_KWA379084_RTRUKOC_0_US-IRAQ.xml
Saddam trial judge plans to quit
Fri Jan 13, 2006 4:59 PM ET
SULAIMANIYA, Iraq (Reuters) - The chief judge in the trial of Saddam Hussein plans to step down, a source close to the judge told Reuters on Friday, in a development that could throw an already turbulent process into further disarray.
"He wants to withdraw," the source said of Rizgar Amin, who is due to preside over the next sitting of the court on January 24.
"He will oversee the next sitting and then announce his reasons for withdrawing," the source said.
Asked why the Kurdish judge, based in the northern city of Sulaimaniya, wanted to pull out of a trial that has made his face familiar around the world during long days of television coverage, he would say only: "It is too difficult."
The killing of two defense lawyers has already highlighted problems with the process in a country mired in a virtual civil war that pits Saddam's fellow minority Sunni Arabs against a U.S.-backed government run by Shi'ite Muslims and ethnic Kurds who are intent on hanging the 68-year-old former president.
Kidnapping and murder have become commonplace and human rights groups have questioned the wisdom of pushing ahead with a trial in Baghdad rather than an international process in The Hague or elsewhere.
Court officials were not immediately available for comment.
There is already a precedent in the trial, which opened on October 19, for replacing one of the panel of five judges, so in principle Amin's departure may cause little upset; a judge quit to avoid a potential conflict of interest over one of the eight defendants' alleged role in the death of a relative.
But in practice, the resignation of the most visible face of the court outside of the dock may be an embarrassment for the Iraqi government and U.S. officials keen to show the world that Iraqis are capable of giving their former leader a fair trial.
Only one other of the five judges on the panel has allowed himself to be seen on camera and many of the witnesses called so far to testify to crimes against humanity committed against over 140 Shi'ite men from the town of Dujail have spoken behind a screen with their voices distorted to avoid retribution.
After several hearings late last month, Amin was criticized by some observers for allowing Saddam to speak at length, making allegations, including of his maltreatment at American hands.
The judge, whose dry wit and courteous manner have been features of the trial since its first day, has rejected criticism and insisted the defense should have a fair hearing.
HELICOPTER DOWNED
Rebels in northern Iraq apparently shot down an armed U.S. reconnaissance helicopter, killing its two pilots, in a rare instance of American air power being challenged by guerrillas.
"The indicators are that it was due to hostile fire," said Lieutenant General John Vines, the deputy U.S. commander in Iraq. Witnesses at the scene in the city of Mosul said they saw fighters fire on the two-seater aircraft with heavy machineguns.
Six days earlier, all 12 people aboard were killed when a Black Hawk helicopter went down close to the nearby northern city of Tal Afar, though that has so far been blamed on weather.
Vines warned that violence may increase once the results of last month's parliamentary election are announced next week.
Many minority Sunni Arabs, whose community has fostered the insurgency, have complained of fraud in the December 15 vote, and an informal truce to encourage Sunnis to vote after their boycott of a previous poll last January has been widely broken.
An almost final tally of parliamentary seats, obtained by Reuters, confirmed that Sunni parties will have about a fifth of the seats in the 275-member chamber, while the dominant Shi'ite Islamist Alliance will fall only a few seats short of retaining the slim absolute majority it currently enjoys.
With six seats yet to be allocated, the Alliance and their present Kurdish coalition partners were also one seat short of the two-thirds majority needed to change the constitution, figures provided by a source at the Electoral Commission showed.
Sunni Arab parties have been disappointed at the results but appear ready to take part in a grand coalition government.
The United Iraqi Alliance (UIA) has 129 seats on the present tally, nine short of a majority and 11 fewer than in the interim assembly. The main Kurdish bloc has 52 seats, down from 75.
Weeks of negotiation are expected to follow on the make-up of a coalition cabinet; the Shi'ite Alliance has said it expects to nominate its choice of prime minister in the next few days.
The wife and daughter of former Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz demanded his release from prison after visiting him, saying he was seriously ill. "My father is losing weight. He suffers from pains in the heart and has blood pressure problems. He has had two strokes already," Aziz's daughter Zainab told Reuters.
Aziz, 70, once the public face of Saddam's regime abroad, was jailed after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. He faces no charges and remains in the custody of U.S. forces.
(Additional reporting by Michael Georgy, Mariam Karouny, Ross Colvin and Alastair Macdonald in Baghdad and Nabeel Nooredeen in Mosul)
|
|
