All of Saddam’s skills as a demagogue were on display. Viewers glued to TV sets in Sunni neighborhoods like Adhamiya in Baghdad, and hard-core communities like Fallujah, began chanting the old slogan “Our blood and our lives for you, Saddam!” The Butcher of Baghdad didn’t have the captive audience he once had, back when he won elections with 103 percent of the vote. But still, the hearing was a shoddy performance by the interim government in its first week of independence. Saddam’s defiance could only hearten insurgents, and made the new government look vulnerable and ill-prepared.
American administrators had been worried about just that. That’s one reason they had been reluctant to turn Saddam over to Iraqi control right after occupation officially ended last week. But Prime Minister Ayad Allawi had insisted that there wasn’t any more visible symbol of sovereignty than custody of Saddam, and the Americans agreed to a compromise. On Wednesday, Saddam was formally handed over to Iraqi judicial custody, although physical custody remained with American troops. The next day’s public hearing was held to inform Saddam of the charges against him, including gassing the Kurds at Halabjah, assassinating religious figures, slaughtering Shiites and invading the neighboring country of Kuwait–charges Saddam didn’t even bother to deny, and some of which he actually boasted about.
The U.S. military censored the tape of the hearing, at first keeping Saddam’s voice muted–though the audio later leaked out. The censors also edited out the faces of everyone in the court but Saddam and other defendants, fearing for people’s safety–but the editing was so sloppy that many Iraqis immediately recognized the judge. U.S. spokesmen entreated journalists not to mention the location of the courthouse, yet all Iraq knew it was in one of Saddam’s former palaces inside Camp Victory, the American military headquarters.
The investigating judge, a thirtyish Shiite from Najaf, read out Saddam’s occupation–“former president of Iraq”–to which Saddam promptly replied: “President of Iraq, current, present, chosen by the people. Who are you?”
“I will introduce myself in due course. I am the investigative judge of the Central Criminal Court.”
“Let me understand. What law formed this court?”
“This law was by the Coalition authority.”
“So you’re an Iraqi who represents the Coalition forces?”
“No, I’m an Iraqi representing Iraq.”
“You should not work under a law enacted by what you call Coalition authorities; these are occupation authorities, invasion forces.”
Even Iraqis who hated Saddam were chagrined. “Why did they bring someone who’s not a proper judge to such a fabricated court?” said Hassan Munis, a 44-year-old salesman once sentenced to 15 years in jail by Saddam’s judges for criticizing the regime. “Couldn’t they find someone older and wiser?” And Ammar Muhammed, 26, a barber, was happy to see Saddam brought to trial, but added, “It’s not the occupier’s right, or whoever was appointed by the occupier, to prosecute any Iraqi.”
Saddam and 11 of his top henchmen are to be tried under Iraqi law, which is similar to the legal system in France. After this first hearing, a team of five investigative judges will prepare a case until they’re ready for trial. This may take as long as six months in Saddam’s case–less for some of the co-accused like “Chemical” Ali al-Majid, his former Defense minister, and Saddam’s two half brothers, Barazan and Watban al-Tikriti. Some 60 tons of incriminating documents have been gathered by the Iraqi Special Tribunal, headed by Salem Chalabi (who refused all requests to be interviewed by NEWSWEEK, citing recent articles critical of his uncle Ahmad Chalabi, a former Governing Council member whose organization is accused of spying for Iran, and corruption). Advising and assisting the tribunal is the Regime Crimes Liaison Office, created by the Coalition authorities and still operating under the new U.S. Embassy, which hoisted its flag in Baghdad last week. With two dozen lawyers and experts (mostly American) in country and 50 more on their way, the liaison office may soon be much better staffed than the Iraqi tribunal itself.
Despite a new law giving criminal defendants like Saddam the right to counsel, lawyers appointed by Saddam’s family in Jordan have so far been refused permission to visit their client. U.S. officials still have not agreed on security arrangements for such visits. And two of Saddam’s lawyers claimed in interviews with NEWSWEEK that Iraq’s new Justice minister, Malik Dohan al-Hassan, had threatened to have them killed if they tried to represent the former dictator. “If you come to Iraq, you will not only be killed, you will be cut to pieces,” Jordanian attorney Issam Ghazzawi said al-Hassan told him by phone. Efforts by NEWSWEEK to reach al-Hassan were not successful, but he was quoted on an Arabic news Web site denying the death threat, saying, “I simply told them if they want to defend Saddam, they should visit his mass graves first.”
Saddam himself complained loudly that he didn’t have a lawyer at the hearing, refusing to sign documents given to him by the judge until he did. “I do not want anyone to say that you were hasty and did not do your job properly,” he told the judge in a mock-avuncular tone. The judge replied: “It is your right as a human being and a convict not to sign without the presence of a lawyer.”
The same day Saddam had his hearing, Iraqi officials announced that the interim government had agreed to reinstate the death penalty. It had been suspended by Coalition authorities because of opposition by European countries. A recent poll by the popular Iraqi talk-radio station Dijla found that 45 percent of its callers wanted Saddam to be executed for his crimes; many others wanted even worse punishments, and only a small minority believed him innocent. “It’s going to be the trial of the century,” said Iraq’s national-security adviser, Mowaffak al-Rubaie. “This is part of the psychological healing process for our country. It will also be a huge educational lesson for Arabs and Islamic countries.” Perhaps. But Iraq’s fledgling government will have to do a lot better the next time it gives Saddam his day in court.
