Trial of Saddam Hussein
Encyclopedia
The Trial of Saddam Hussein was the trial
of the deposed President
of Iraq
Saddam Hussein
by the Iraqi Interim Government
for crimes against humanity during his time in office.
The Coalition Provisional Authority
voted to create the Iraqi Special Tribunal (IST), consisting of five Iraqi judges, on 9 December 2003, to try Saddam Hussein and his aides for charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide
.
The trial was viewed in some quarters as a kangaroo court
or show trial
. Amnesty International
stated that the trial was "unfair," and Human Rights Watch
noting that Saddam's execution "follows a flawed trial and marks a significant step away from the rule of law in Iraq."
Saddam was captured on December 13, 2003. He remained in custody by US forces at Camp Cropper
in Baghdad
, along with eleven senior Ba'athist officials. Particular attention was paid during the trial to activities in violent campaigns against the Kurd
s in the north during the Iran–Iraq War, against the Shiites in the south in 1991 and 1999 to put down revolts
, and in Dujail
after a failed assassination attempt on July 8, 1982, during the Iran–Iraq War. Saddam asserted in his defense that he had been unlawfully overthrown, and was still the president of Iraq.
The first trial began before the Iraqi Special Tribunal on 19 October 2005. At this trial Saddam and seven other defendants were tried for crimes against humanity with regard to events that took place after a failed assassination
attempt in Dujail in 1982 by members of the Islamic Dawa Party
(see also human rights abuses in Iraq
). A second and separate trial began on August 21, 2006, trying Saddam and six co-defendants for genocide during the Anfal
military campaign against the Kurds of northern Iraq. Saddam may also have been tried in absentia
for events dating to the Iran–Iraq War and the invasion of Kuwait
, including war crime
s, crimes against humanity, and genocide.
On November 5, 2006, Saddam was sentenced to death by hanging
. On December 26, Saddam's appeal was rejected and the death sentence upheld. No further appeals were taken and Saddam was ordered executed within 30 days of that date. The date and place of the execution were secret until the sentence was carried out. Saddam Hussein was executed
by hanging on December 30, 2006. With his death, all other charges were dropped.
Saddam appeared confident and defiant throughout the 46-minute hearing. Alternating between listening to and gesturing at the judge Rizgar Mohammed Amin
, he questioned the legitimacy
of the tribunal
set up to try him. He called the court a "play" aimed at Bush
's chances of winning the US presidential elections. He emphatically rejected charges against him. "This is all theater. The real criminal is Bush", he stated. When asked by the judge to identify himself in his first appearance before an Iraqi judge (three of the five judges and the prosecutor are never identified nor photographed for security reasons), he answered, "You are an Iraqi, you know who I am."
Also during the arrangement, Saddam defended Iraq's August 1990 invasion of Kuwait
and referred to Kuwaitis as "dogs" who were trying to turn the women of Iraq into "two penny whores", which led to an admonishment from the judge for using coarse language in court. Later on July 1, Kuwait
's information minister
Abul-Hassan said crude language was "expected" of Saddam. "This is how he was raised", said the minister.
Although no attorneys
for Saddam were present at the 1st of July hearing, his first wife, Sajida Talfah
, hired a multinational legal team of attorneys, headed by Jordan
ian Mohammad Rashdan and including Ayesha Gaddafi (Libya
), Curtis Doebbler
(United States
), Emmanuel Ludot (France
) and Marc Henzelin (Switzerland
). Towards the end of the first hearing, the deposed president refused to sign the legal document confirming his understanding of the charges.
In December 2004, Clive Stafford Smith
prepared a 50-page brief for the defense team arguing that Saddam Hussein should be tried in the US under US criminal law.
The London-based Arab-language daily newspaper Al-Quds Al-Arabi
reported in early May 2005 that during a meeting with Donald Rumsfeld
, "known only to a few Iraqi officials in Jordan
", Saddam refused an offer of release if he made a televised request to armed groups for a ceasefire with allied forces. The British Daily Telegraph newspaper, quoting an unnamed senior UK government source, had reported two weeks before that Iraqi insurgents were being offered a "deal" whereby the former President of Iraq would receive a more lenient sentence if they gave up their attacks.
On 17 June 2005, former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad, former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark
, former minister of Foreign Affairs of France Roland Dumas
and former President of Algeria Ahmed Ben Bella
announced the formation, under their joint chairmanship, of an international Emergency Committee for Iraq
, with a main objective of ensuring fair trials for Saddam and the other former Baath Party officials being tried with him.
On 18 July 2005, Saddam was charged by the Special Tribunal with the first of an expected series of charges, relating to the mass killings of the inhabitants of the village of Dujail
in 1982 after a failed assassination attempt against him.
On 8 August 2005, Saddam's family announced that they had dissolved the Jordan-based legal team and that they had appointed Khalil al-Duleimi
, the only Iraq-based member, as the sole legal counsel. In an interview broadcast on Iraqi television on 6 September 2005, Iraqi president Jalal Talabani
said that he had directly extracted confessions from Saddam that he had ordered mass killings and other "crimes" during his regime and that he deserved to die. Two days later, Saddam's lawyer denied that he confessed.
Saddam's defense repeatedly argued for a delay in the proceedings, insisting that it had not been given evidence secured by the prosecution, had not been given sufficient time to review any prosecution documents, but these submissions received no response from the court. International human rights groups, including Human Rights Watch
, Amnesty International
and UN bodies such as the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention
and the High Commissioner for Human Rights stated that the Iraqi Special Tribunal and its legal process did not meet international standards for a fair trial. The United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Anan declined to support the proceeding, expressing similar concerns over fairness as well as over the possibility of a death sentence in the case.
on the new Iraq constitution. The tribunal specifically charged the defendants with the killing of 148 Shiites from Dujail
, in retaliation for the failed assassination attempt of 8 July 1982. Supporters of Saddam protested against the trial in Tikrit
.
Saddam's co-defendants were:
As in his pre-trial appearance, at the opening of the 19 October Trial Saddam appeared defiant. He rejected the tribunal's legitimacy and independence from the control of the foreign occupation. "I do not respond to this so-called court, with all due respect to its people, and I retain my constitutional right as the president of Iraq", Saddam declared. He added, "Neither do I recognize the body that has designated and authorized you, nor the aggression because all that has been built on false basis is false."
When the judge asked for his name, Saddam refused, stating "I am the president of the Iraq". He returned the question, asking Kurdish judge Rizgar Mohammed Amin, "Who are you? I want to know who you are." When Amin addressed Saddam as "the former president", Saddam objected emphatically, saying he was still the President of the Republic of Iraq and had not been deposed.
While Saddam's seven co-defendants appeared in traditional Arabic male dress, Saddam wore a dark suit and a white shirt. Al-Bandar, sitting next to Saddam in the front row in a pen of white metal bars, complained that the defendants had been stripped of their head-coverings, upon which they were given back to them.
After the charges were read to them, all eight defendants pleaded not guilty. The first session of Saddam's trial lasted three hours. The court adjourned the case until 28 November 2005, as some of the witnesses were too frightened to attend, and to allow the defense more time to study evidence. During an interview with the Arab news agency al-Arabiya following the opening of the trial, Saddam's eldest daughter Raghad branded the court a "farce" and claimed that her father behaved like a "lion" during the proceedings. "My father is brave, a lion, I am proud of him", she said. "He is a man who dedicated his life to serve his country, he was brave in his youth, so how can he be afraid now?" she added.
On 20 October 2005, attorney Saadoun Sughaiyer al-Janabi
, charged with the defense of Awad Hamed al-Bandar, was abducted from his office by gunmen, and found shot dead near his office a few hours later. On 8 November 2005, attorney Adel al-Zubeidi
, who had been representing Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan
and Abdullah Kazim Ruwayyid, was killed by three gunmen in Baghdad. Barazan Ibrahim
's lawyer Thamer Hamoud al-Khuzaie was also wounded in the attack.
On 28 November 2005, Chief Judge Rizgar Mohammed Amin adjourned the trial until 5 December to allow time to find replacements for two defense lawyers who were slain and another who fled Iraq after he was wounded. On 5 December, Saddam's legal defense team stormed out of the court after questioning the tribunal's legitimacy, and asking about return of defence papers seized by US Army troops and security issues regarding the protection of the defense. Saddam, along with his co-defendants, railed against Chief Judge Amin and the tribunal. The next day, after listening to hours of testimony against him, he lashed out at the judge. He said that he was exhausted, he did not intend on returning to the trial, and to "go to hell".
On 7 December 2005, Saddam refused to enter court, complaining of the conditions in which he was being held and the conduct of the trial. Saddam's complaints included, among other things, that he had not been able to change his clothes for four days.
On 12 December 2005, instead of cross-examining witnesses, Saddam accused his American captors of torturing him, saying, "I have been beaten on every place of my body, and the signs are all over my body."
On 23 January 2006, Rauf Rashid Abd al-Rahman
was nominated interim chief judge of the tribunal. He replaced former chief judge Rizgar Amin
, also a Kurd, who resigned after complaining of government interference. Saddam and his co-defendants objected to the change in judge, citing bias after he ordered defendant Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti
out of the court, and announced they would boycott the trial under Rahman.
On 29 January 2006, the trial was thrown in disarray after a courtroom session in which Saddam's half-brother Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti was dragged away by guards, the defence team walked out, and Saddam was ejected following a slanging match with chief judge Rauf Rashid Abd al-Rahman. Once order was restored, there was only half of the defendants and none of the defence team present.
On 1 February 2006, the defendants failed to show up in court.
On 15 March 2006, Saddam was called by the prosecution as a witness. On the stand, he began making political statements, insisting he was still President of Iraq. He got in an argument with the judge, who closed the trial to the public in response.
On 19 June 2006, Chief Prosecutor Jaafar al-Moussawi called for the death penalty for Saddam and four other defendants including Barzan al-Tikriti, Saddam's half-brother, Taha Yassin Ramadan, former Iraqi Vice President and Awad Hamed al-Bander, former chief judge of Saddam's Revolutionary Court. The suspects faced execution by hanging if convicted and sentenced to death.
On 21 June 2006, Saddam's chief defense lawyer, Khamis al-Obeidi
, was assassinated in Baghdad. Protesting the lack of international protection for lawyers, Saddam began a hunger strike. On 23 June 2006, it was reported that Saddam ended his hunger strike, having missed one meal.
On 27 June 2006, two of Saddam Hussein's lawyers, Ramsey Clark
, a former US Attorney-General, and Curtis Doebbler
, held a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., to call for immediate security for all the Iraqi defense lawyers and to complain in a written statement that the trial was unfair, and was being conducted by the American authorities using Iraqis as a front. The two lawyers claimed that the United States had refused to provide adequate protection for the defense lawyers despite repeated requests that were made and that the United States was intentionally ensuring an unfair trial.
On 5 November 2006, Saddam Hussein was sentenced to death by hanging for the killing of 148 Shiites from Dujail
, in retaliation for the assassination attempt of 8 July 1982. When the judge announced the verdict, Saddam shouted, "Long live the people. Long live the Arab nation. Down with the spies. God is great
." Chief defense lawyer Khalil al-Dulaimi later quoted a statement from Saddam Hussein given just before the Court issued its verdict. He said that Saddam urged his countrymen to "unify in the face of sectarian strife". Al-Dulaimi added that Saddam's message to the people was to "pardon and do not take revenge on the invading nations, its civilians". An appeal
, mandated by the Iraqi judicial system, followed. There was speculation that the appeals could last years, postponing his actual execution. However, on 26 December, Saddam's appeal was rejected and the death sentence was given. No further appeals were possible and Saddam had to be executed within 30 days of that date. The decision still had to be ratified by the Iraqi President but could not be commuted. Judge Arif Shaheen, one of the nine appeal judges, said, "It cannot exceed 30 days. As from tomorrow the sentence could be carried out at any time. The appeals court has issued its verdict. What we have decided today is compulsory."
On 30 December 2006 at approximately 6:05am Baghdad time, Saddam Hussein's sentence was carried out and he was executed by hanging.
Among Saddam's co-defendants, Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti
, his half-brother and Iraq's intelligence chief at the time of the Dujail killings, and Awad Hamed al-Bandar
, who issued death sentences to Dujail residents as head of a Revolutionary Court, were also sentenced to death by hanging. They were executed on January 15, 2007. The former Iraqi vice-president Taha Yassin Ramadan
was sentenced to life in prison. However, on 12 February 2007, the sentence was changed to death by hanging, and Ramadan was executed on 20 March 2007.
Former Baath party officials in the Dujail region Abdullah Kadhem Roweed Al-Musheikhi
, his son Mizher Abdullah Roweed Al-Musheikhi
, and Ali Daeem Ali
were sentenced to 15 years in prison. Mohammed Azawi Ali, also a Baath party official in Dujail region, was acquitted due to a lack of evidence.
President Jalal Talabani
said in a statement, "I think this trial was fair", and "I must respect the independence of the Iraqi judiciary. Until the end I must be silent."
Prime Minister Nouri Maliki said the sentence may "help alleviate the pain of the widows and the orphans" who lived under Saddam's regime.
First Deputy Speaker of the Iraqi National Assembly Khaled al-Attiyah
said "we expected the maximum penalty against the criminal Saddam Hussein and his henchmen because they committed horrible crimes against the Iraqi people, the Arabs, Muslims and the entire Western
community."
reacted guardedly to the death sentence, saying such verdicts should not appear to be "victor's justice" and should be acceptable to the people of Iraq and the international community. In a statement, he said "such life and death decisions require credible due process of law."
believed that carrying out the death penalty on a 69-year-old would be "unethical", reported flandersnews.be.
Meanwhile, the Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt
told the press that "justice has been done", although a spokesman for the Prime Minister later said that Verhofstadt felt that it would have been better to have tried Saddam Hussein at the International Criminal Court
in The Hague
.
said "While not wishing to play down the crimes... I cannot but express the firm opposition of the Italian government - as well as mine - to a death sentence. As I reiterated again today (27 December 2006) at the cabinet meeting, Italy is opposed to capital punishment, always and in all cases. It is a general principle that I reiterated firmly also at the United Nations."
Margaret Beckett
said "it is right that those accused of such crimes against the Iraqi people should face Iraqi justice." Prime Minister Tony Blair stated that he is "against the death penalty, whether it is Saddam Hussein or anybody else."
Council for Justice and Peace and Cardinal Renato Raffaele Martino, opposed the death sentence for Saddam Hussein, saying, "For me, punishing a crime with another crime — which is what killing for vindication is — would mean that we are still at the point of demanding an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth."
said "my understanding is there is an appeal process to follow, so given that fact, I think it would be pre-emptive to be passing any judgments or making any firm public declarations until all of those avenues have been exhausted."
spokesman Tony Snow
said the trial showed "absolute proof" that the judiciary in Iraq are independent. President George W. Bush in a statement said, "Saddam Hussein's trial is a milestone in the Iraqi people's efforts to replace the rule of a tyrant with the rule of law", and "today, the victims of this regime have received a measure of the justice which many thought would never come."
welcomed Saddam's death sentence, and hoped it sent a message to Zimbabwe's dictator Robert Mugabe
, as well as deposed dictators Augusto Pinochet
of Chile and former Liberian dictator Charles Taylor, saying:
said, "They could've easily allowed him to be arbitrarily executed as has happened in so many other countries, yet no, he could've been shot ... or something like that, but no, they were determined to have a transparent trial they were determined to demonstrate to the world that there was a new Iraq."
Mr Howard said he was opposed to the death penalty, but could not govern what another country did. Howard stated that the death penalty is not the issue of significance. "The real issue is that he was tried in an open, transparent fashion and one of the great marks of democratic society is due process and the rule of law and this mass murderer was given due process."
Helen Clark
stated that the guilty verdict was appropriate but that she has "a long-standing objection to the death penalty and that will always be a concern to me." She declined to make a comment on whether the trial was fair, saying it was hard to determine from so far away.
, 30 December 2006, at approximately 06:05 AM local time (03:05 UTC
). The execution was carried out at "Camp Justice," an Iraqi army base in Kazimain
, a neighbourhood of northeast Baghdad. There were some foreign groups who wanted Saddam dead after Eid ul-Adha, but Prime Minister Maliki wanted Saddam dead before the New Year.
The human rights organization Amnesty International
criticized the death sentence and said the trial was "deeply flawed and unfair." The process was marred by "serious flaws that call into question the capacity of the tribunal," Malcolm Stuart, director of Amnesty's Middle East and North Africa program, said. "In particular, political interference undermined the independence and impartiality of the court." The specific concerns raised by Amnesty International included the status of the trial as a "Special Trial" (unconstitutional according to the Iraqi Constitution), political interference in trial proceedings by the removal of a judge mid-trial, exclusion of members of the defense team at points in the trial, assassination of multiple members of the defence team, and the closure of the trial before the defence team had completed presenting its legal case.
In the opening statement of the Jury of Conscience of the World Tribunal on Iraq
, keynote speaker Arundhati Roy
retorted, "Saddam Hussein is being tried as a war criminal even as we speak. But what about those who helped to install him in power, who armed him, who supported him—and who are now setting up a tribunal to try him and absolve themselves completely?", referring to the assistance provided by the US government under President Ronald Reagan
during the Iran–Iraq War, as revealed incontrovertibly by documents declassified by the National Security Archive
.
(a) has held that the detention is arbitrary within Category III of the Working Group's categories (failure to provide a fair trial) [paragraph 27]; and
(b) has called upon the governments of Iraq and the USA to remedy the situation by providing a fair trial [paragraph 28].
Execution on Muslim Holiday Eid Not Allowed
Streaming Video of Saddam Hussein in Trial
To the victor belongs the judge's gavel
Trial
A trial is, in the most general sense, a test, usually a test to see whether something does or does not meet a given standard.It may refer to:*Trial , the presentation of information in a formal setting, usually a court...
of the deposed President
President of Iraq
The President of Iraq is the head of state of Iraq and "safeguards the commitment to the Constitution and the preservation of Iraq's independence, sovereignty, unity, the security of its territories in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution." The President is elected by the Council of...
of Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the fifth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003...
by the Iraqi Interim Government
Iraqi Interim Government
The Iraqi Interim Government was created by the United States and its coalition allies as a caretaker government to govern Iraq until the Iraqi Transitional Government was installed following the Iraqi National Assembly election conducted on January 30, 2005...
for crimes against humanity during his time in office.
The Coalition Provisional Authority
Coalition Provisional Authority
The Coalition Provisional Authority was established as a transitional government following the invasion of Iraq by the United States and its allies, members of the Multi-National Force – Iraq which was formed to oust the government of Saddam Hussein in 2003...
voted to create the Iraqi Special Tribunal (IST), consisting of five Iraqi judges, on 9 December 2003, to try Saddam Hussein and his aides for charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide
Genocide
Genocide is defined as "the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group", though what constitutes enough of a "part" to qualify as genocide has been subject to much debate by legal scholars...
.
The trial was viewed in some quarters as a kangaroo court
Kangaroo court
A kangaroo court is "a mock court in which the principles of law and justice are disregarded or perverted".The outcome of a trial by kangaroo court is essentially determined in advance, usually for the purpose of ensuring conviction, either by going through the motions of manipulated procedure or...
or show trial
Show trial
The term show trial is a pejorative description of a type of highly public trial in which there is a strong connotation that the judicial authorities have already determined the guilt of the defendant. The actual trial has as its only goal to present the accusation and the verdict to the public as...
. Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
stated that the trial was "unfair," and Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...
noting that Saddam's execution "follows a flawed trial and marks a significant step away from the rule of law in Iraq."
Saddam was captured on December 13, 2003. He remained in custody by US forces at Camp Cropper
Camp Cropper
Camp Cropper is a holding facility for security detainees operated by the United States Army near Baghdad International Airport in Iraq. The facility was initially operated as a high-value detention site , but has since been expanded increasing its capacity from 163 to 2,000 detainees...
in Baghdad
Baghdad
Baghdad is the capital of Iraq, as well as the coterminous Baghdad Governorate. The population of Baghdad in 2011 is approximately 7,216,040...
, along with eleven senior Ba'athist officials. Particular attention was paid during the trial to activities in violent campaigns against the Kurd
Kürd
Kürd or Kyurd or Kyurt may refer to:*Kürd Eldarbəyli, Azerbaijan*Kürd Mahrızlı, Azerbaijan*Kürd, Goychay, Azerbaijan*Kürd, Jalilabad, Azerbaijan*Kürd, Qabala, Azerbaijan*Qurdbayram, Azerbaijan...
s in the north during the Iran–Iraq War, against the Shiites in the south in 1991 and 1999 to put down revolts
Rebellion
Rebellion, uprising or insurrection, is a refusal of obedience or order. It may, therefore, be seen as encompassing a range of behaviors aimed at destroying or replacing an established authority such as a government or a head of state...
, and in Dujail
Dujail
Dujail is a small Shia town in the Salah ad Din Governorate. It is situated about north of Iraq's capital, Baghdad, and has approximately 10,000 inhabitants. It is the site of the 1982 Dujail Massacre....
after a failed assassination attempt on July 8, 1982, during the Iran–Iraq War. Saddam asserted in his defense that he had been unlawfully overthrown, and was still the president of Iraq.
The first trial began before the Iraqi Special Tribunal on 19 October 2005. At this trial Saddam and seven other defendants were tried for crimes against humanity with regard to events that took place after a failed assassination
Assassination
To carry out an assassination is "to murder by a sudden and/or secret attack, often for political reasons." Alternatively, assassination may be defined as "the act of deliberately killing someone, especially a public figure, usually for hire or for political reasons."An assassination may be...
attempt in Dujail in 1982 by members of the Islamic Dawa Party
Islamic Dawa Party
The Islamic Dawa Party or Islamic Call Party is a political party in Iraq. Dawa and the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council are two of the main parties in the religious-Shiite United Iraqi Alliance, which won a plurality of seats in both the provisional January 2005 Iraqi election and the longer-term...
(see also human rights abuses in Iraq
Human rights in Saddam's Iraq
Iraq under Saddam Hussein had high levels of torture and mass murder.Secret police, torture, murders, rape, abductions, deportations, forced disappearances, assassinations, chemical weapons, and the destruction of wetlands were some of the methods Saddam Hussein used to maintain control...
). A second and separate trial began on August 21, 2006, trying Saddam and six co-defendants for genocide during the Anfal
Al-Anfal Campaign
The al-Anfal Campaign , also known as Operation Anfal or simply Anfal, was a genocidal campaign against the Kurdish people in Northern Iraq, led by the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein and headed by Ali Hassan al-Majid in the final stages of Iran-Iraq War...
military campaign against the Kurds of northern Iraq. Saddam may also have been tried in absentia
In absentia
In absentia is Latin for "in the absence". In legal use, it usually means a trial at which the defendant is not physically present. The phrase is not ordinarily a mere observation, but suggests recognition of violation to a defendant's right to be present in court proceedings in a criminal trial.In...
for events dating to the Iran–Iraq War and the invasion of Kuwait
Invasion of Kuwait
The Invasion of Kuwait, also known as the Iraq-Kuwait War, was a major conflict between the Republic of Iraq and the State of Kuwait, which resulted in the seven-month long Iraqi occupation of Kuwait, which subsequently led to direct military intervention by United States-led forces in the Gulf...
, including war crime
War crime
War crimes are serious violations of the laws applicable in armed conflict giving rise to individual criminal responsibility...
s, crimes against humanity, and genocide.
On November 5, 2006, Saddam was sentenced to death by hanging
Hanging
Hanging is the lethal suspension of a person by a ligature. The Oxford English Dictionary states that hanging in this sense is "specifically to put to death by suspension by the neck", though it formerly also referred to crucifixion and death by impalement in which the body would remain...
. On December 26, Saddam's appeal was rejected and the death sentence upheld. No further appeals were taken and Saddam was ordered executed within 30 days of that date. The date and place of the execution were secret until the sentence was carried out. Saddam Hussein was executed
Execution of Saddam Hussein
The execution of Saddam Hussein took place on December 30, 2006 . Saddam was sentenced to death by hanging, after being found guilty and convicted of crimes against humanity by the Iraqi Special Tribunal for the murder of 148 Iraqi Shi'ite in the town of Dujail in 1982, in retaliation for an...
by hanging on December 30, 2006. With his death, all other charges were dropped.
First hearing: 1 July 2004
The 68-year-old deposedDeposition (politics)
Deposition by political means concerns the removal of a politician or monarch. It may be done by coup, impeachment, invasion or forced abdication...
Saddam appeared confident and defiant throughout the 46-minute hearing. Alternating between listening to and gesturing at the judge Rizgar Mohammed Amin
Rizgar Mohammed Amin
Rizgar Mohammed Amin is the former chief judge of the Iraqi Special Tribunal's Al-Dujail trial. He is the only judge whose name was revealed on the trial's opening on 19 October 2005, the names of the other four judges and all but two of his four colleagues faces not allowed to be shown during...
, he questioned the legitimacy
Legitimacy
Legitimacy, from the Latin word legitimare , may refer to:* Legitimacy * Legitimacy of standards* Legitimacy * Legitimate expectation* Legitimate peripheral participation* Legitimate theater* Legitimation...
of the tribunal
Tribunal
A tribunal in the general sense is any person or institution with the authority to judge, adjudicate on, or determine claims or disputes—whether or not it is called a tribunal in its title....
set up to try him. He called the court a "play" aimed at Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
's chances of winning the US presidential elections. He emphatically rejected charges against him. "This is all theater. The real criminal is Bush", he stated. When asked by the judge to identify himself in his first appearance before an Iraqi judge (three of the five judges and the prosecutor are never identified nor photographed for security reasons), he answered, "You are an Iraqi, you know who I am."
Also during the arrangement, Saddam defended Iraq's August 1990 invasion of Kuwait
Gulf War
The Persian Gulf War , commonly referred to as simply the Gulf War, was a war waged by a U.N.-authorized coalition force from 34 nations led by the United States, against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait.The war is also known under other names, such as the First Gulf...
and referred to Kuwaitis as "dogs" who were trying to turn the women of Iraq into "two penny whores", which led to an admonishment from the judge for using coarse language in court. Later on July 1, Kuwait
Kuwait
The State of Kuwait is a sovereign Arab state situated in the north-east of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the south at Khafji, and Iraq to the north at Basra. It lies on the north-western shore of the Persian Gulf. The name Kuwait is derived from the...
's information minister
Minister (government)
A minister is a politician who holds significant public office in a national or regional government. Senior ministers are members of the cabinet....
Abul-Hassan said crude language was "expected" of Saddam. "This is how he was raised", said the minister.
Although no attorneys
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
for Saddam were present at the 1st of July hearing, his first wife, Sajida Talfah
Sajida Talfah
Sajida Khairallah Talfah , is the widow and wife of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, and mother of two sons and three daughters .She was born in 1937. She is the oldest daughter of Khairallah Talfah...
, hired a multinational legal team of attorneys, headed by Jordan
Jordan
Jordan , officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan , Al-Mamlaka al-Urduniyya al-Hashemiyya) is a kingdom on the East Bank of the River Jordan. The country borders Saudi Arabia to the east and south-east, Iraq to the north-east, Syria to the north and the West Bank and Israel to the west, sharing...
ian Mohammad Rashdan and including Ayesha Gaddafi (Libya
Libya
Libya is an African country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....
), Curtis Doebbler
Curtis Doebbler
Dr. Curtis F.J. Doebbler is an international human rights lawyer who since 1988 has been representing individuals before international human rights bodies in Africa, Europe, the Americas and before United Nations bodies...
(United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
), Emmanuel Ludot (France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
) and Marc Henzelin (Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
). Towards the end of the first hearing, the deposed president refused to sign the legal document confirming his understanding of the charges.
Pre-trial events
In a leaked transcript of a February 2003 meeting between Bush and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Aznar, Bush expressed a willingness to have Saddam tried at the International Tribunal of Justice in The Hague.In December 2004, Clive Stafford Smith
Clive Stafford Smith
Clive Adrian Stafford Smith OBE is a British [see talk] lawyer who specialises in the areas of civil rights and the death penalty in the United States of America....
prepared a 50-page brief for the defense team arguing that Saddam Hussein should be tried in the US under US criminal law.
The London-based Arab-language daily newspaper Al-Quds Al-Arabi
Al-Quds Al-Arabi
Al-Quds Al-Arabi , is an independent pan-Arab daily newspaper published in London since 1989. The paper is owned by Palestinian expatriates, and edited by Abd al-Bari Atwan who was born in a Palestinian refugee camp in Gaza Strip in 1950. Its motto is . Its circulation is estimated to be...
reported in early May 2005 that during a meeting with Donald Rumsfeld
Donald Rumsfeld
Donald Henry Rumsfeld is an American politician and businessman. Rumsfeld served as the 13th Secretary of Defense from 1975 to 1977 under President Gerald Ford, and as the 21st Secretary of Defense from 2001 to 2006 under President George W. Bush. He is both the youngest and the oldest person to...
, "known only to a few Iraqi officials in Jordan
Jordan
Jordan , officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan , Al-Mamlaka al-Urduniyya al-Hashemiyya) is a kingdom on the East Bank of the River Jordan. The country borders Saudi Arabia to the east and south-east, Iraq to the north-east, Syria to the north and the West Bank and Israel to the west, sharing...
", Saddam refused an offer of release if he made a televised request to armed groups for a ceasefire with allied forces. The British Daily Telegraph newspaper, quoting an unnamed senior UK government source, had reported two weeks before that Iraqi insurgents were being offered a "deal" whereby the former President of Iraq would receive a more lenient sentence if they gave up their attacks.
On 17 June 2005, former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad, former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark
Ramsey Clark
William Ramsey Clark is an American lawyer, activist and former public official. He worked for the U.S. Department of Justice, which included service as United States Attorney General from 1967 to 1969, under President Lyndon B. Johnson...
, former minister of Foreign Affairs of France Roland Dumas
Roland Dumas
Roland Dumas is a lawyer and French Socialist politician who served notably as Foreign Minister under President François Mitterrand from 1984 to 1986 and from 1988 to 1993...
and former President of Algeria Ahmed Ben Bella
Ahmed Ben Bella
Mohamed Ahmed Ben Bella was a soldier and Algerian revolutionary, who became the first President of Algeria.-Youth:...
announced the formation, under their joint chairmanship, of an international Emergency Committee for Iraq
Emergency Committee for Iraq
The Emergency Committee for Iraq was formed by Ramsey Clark, Roland Dumas, Ahmed Ben Bella and Tun Mahathir Mohammad all former senior politicians, to strive to encourage respect for the rule of law in Iraq....
, with a main objective of ensuring fair trials for Saddam and the other former Baath Party officials being tried with him.
On 18 July 2005, Saddam was charged by the Special Tribunal with the first of an expected series of charges, relating to the mass killings of the inhabitants of the village of Dujail
Dujail
Dujail is a small Shia town in the Salah ad Din Governorate. It is situated about north of Iraq's capital, Baghdad, and has approximately 10,000 inhabitants. It is the site of the 1982 Dujail Massacre....
in 1982 after a failed assassination attempt against him.
On 8 August 2005, Saddam's family announced that they had dissolved the Jordan-based legal team and that they had appointed Khalil al-Duleimi
Khalil al-Duleimi
Khalil al-Duleimi is an attorney best known for representing Saddam Hussein at his trial. He was one of 22 lawyers representing Hussein at his trial, and the only one based in Iraq. When Saddam's legal team learned that Saddam was to be interrogated, they requested the presence of a lawyer...
, the only Iraq-based member, as the sole legal counsel. In an interview broadcast on Iraqi television on 6 September 2005, Iraqi president Jalal Talabani
Jalal Talabani
Jalal Talabani is the sixth and current President of Iraq, a leading Kurdish politician. He is the first non-Arab president of Iraq, although Abdul Kareem Qasim was half Kurdish....
said that he had directly extracted confessions from Saddam that he had ordered mass killings and other "crimes" during his regime and that he deserved to die. Two days later, Saddam's lawyer denied that he confessed.
Saddam's defense repeatedly argued for a delay in the proceedings, insisting that it had not been given evidence secured by the prosecution, had not been given sufficient time to review any prosecution documents, but these submissions received no response from the court. International human rights groups, including Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...
, Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
and UN bodies such as the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention
Working Group on Arbitrary Detention
The Working Group on Arbitrary Detention is a UN-mandated body of independent human rights experts that investigates cases of arbitrary arrest and detention that may be in violation of international human rights law....
and the High Commissioner for Human Rights stated that the Iraqi Special Tribunal and its legal process did not meet international standards for a fair trial. The United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Anan declined to support the proceeding, expressing similar concerns over fairness as well as over the possibility of a death sentence in the case.
Al-Dujail trial: 19 October 2005
Iraqi authorities put Saddam and seven other former Iraqi officials on trial on 19 October 2005, four days after the 15 October 2005 referendumIraqi constitution ratification vote, 2005
The electorate of Iraq went to the polls on 15 October 2005 to vote in a referendum on whether or not to ratify the proposed constitution of Iraq. After 10 days of counting votes, the country's electoral commission announced that the constitution had been approved by a wide margin nationwide...
on the new Iraq constitution. The tribunal specifically charged the defendants with the killing of 148 Shiites from Dujail
Dujail Massacre
The Dujail Massacre refers to the events following an assassination attempt against then Iraqi president, Saddam Hussein, on July 8, 1982, in the town of Dujail...
, in retaliation for the failed assassination attempt of 8 July 1982. Supporters of Saddam protested against the trial in Tikrit
Tikrit
Tikrit is a town in Iraq, located 140 km northwest of Baghdad on the Tigris river . The town, with an estimated population in 2002 of about 260,000 is the administrative center of the Salah ad Din Governorate.-Ancient times:...
.
Saddam's co-defendants were:
- Barzan Ibrahim al-TikritiBarzan Ibrahim al-TikritiBarzan Ibrahim al-Hasan al-Tikriti was one of three half-brothers of Saddam Hussein, and a leader of the Mukhabarat, the Iraqi intelligence service...
, his half-brother and former chief of intelligence - Taha Yassin RamadanTaha Yassin RamadanTaha Yasin Ramadan al-Jizrawi was a prominent Iraqi Kurd, serving as Vice President of Iraq from March 1991 to the fall of Saddam Hussein in April 2003....
, former Vice-President - Awad Hamed al-BandarAwad Hamed al-BandarAwad Hamad al-Bandar was an Iraqi chief judge under Saddam Hussein's presidency. He was the head of the Revolutionary Court which issued death sentences against 143 Dujail residents, in the aftermath of the failed assassination attempt on the president on July 8, 1982 Awad Hamad al-Bandar ...
Al-Sa'dun, a former chief judge - Abdullah Kadhem Roweed Al-MusheikhiAbdullah Kadhem Roweed Al-MusheikhiAbdullah Kadhem Ruaid is a former Baath party official in the Dujail region is Iraq, and the father of Mizher Abdullah Roweed Al-Musheikhi. He was convicted of involvement in the killings of 148 Shia Muslims during the Al-Dujail trial of Saddam Hussein, and was sentenced to 15 years in...
, Al-Dujail Baath party official - Mizher Abdullah Roweed Al-MusheikhiMizher Abdullah Roweed Al-MusheikhiMizhar Abdullah Ruaid is a former Baath party official in the Dujail region is Iraq, and the son of Abdullah Kadhem Ruaid. He was convicted of involvement in the killings of 148 Shia Muslims during the Al-Dujail trial of Saddam Hussein, and was sentenced to 15 years in prison.-References:...
, (son of Abdullah Kadhem), Al-Dujail Baath party official - Ali Daeem AliAli Daeem AliAli Daeem Ali served as a Baath party official in Dujail in 1982, when he is accused of involvement in the executions of 148 Shia Muslims in the area. He was tried alongside Saddam Hussein and was sentenced to 15 years in prison.-References:...
, Al-Dujail Baath party official - Mohammed Azawi Ali, Al-Dujail Baath party official
As in his pre-trial appearance, at the opening of the 19 October Trial Saddam appeared defiant. He rejected the tribunal's legitimacy and independence from the control of the foreign occupation. "I do not respond to this so-called court, with all due respect to its people, and I retain my constitutional right as the president of Iraq", Saddam declared. He added, "Neither do I recognize the body that has designated and authorized you, nor the aggression because all that has been built on false basis is false."
When the judge asked for his name, Saddam refused, stating "I am the president of the Iraq". He returned the question, asking Kurdish judge Rizgar Mohammed Amin, "Who are you? I want to know who you are." When Amin addressed Saddam as "the former president", Saddam objected emphatically, saying he was still the President of the Republic of Iraq and had not been deposed.
While Saddam's seven co-defendants appeared in traditional Arabic male dress, Saddam wore a dark suit and a white shirt. Al-Bandar, sitting next to Saddam in the front row in a pen of white metal bars, complained that the defendants had been stripped of their head-coverings, upon which they were given back to them.
After the charges were read to them, all eight defendants pleaded not guilty. The first session of Saddam's trial lasted three hours. The court adjourned the case until 28 November 2005, as some of the witnesses were too frightened to attend, and to allow the defense more time to study evidence. During an interview with the Arab news agency al-Arabiya following the opening of the trial, Saddam's eldest daughter Raghad branded the court a "farce" and claimed that her father behaved like a "lion" during the proceedings. "My father is brave, a lion, I am proud of him", she said. "He is a man who dedicated his life to serve his country, he was brave in his youth, so how can he be afraid now?" she added.
On 20 October 2005, attorney Saadoun Sughaiyer al-Janabi
Saadoun Sughaiyer al-Janabi
Known as a defence attorney during the Hussein Trials, Saadoun antar nassif al-Janabi was one of two lawyers representing Awad Hamed al-Bandar....
, charged with the defense of Awad Hamed al-Bandar, was abducted from his office by gunmen, and found shot dead near his office a few hours later. On 8 November 2005, attorney Adel al-Zubeidi
Adel al-Zubeidi
Adel al-Zubeidi was a defense attorney during the Hussein Trials on the legal team representing Taha Yassin Ramadan.He was killed on November 8, 2005, by three gunmen driving in either an Opel or a "government vehicle" outside Adil, a Sunni neighbourhood of Baghdad. He was traveling with Thamer...
, who had been representing Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan
Taha Yassin Ramadan
Taha Yasin Ramadan al-Jizrawi was a prominent Iraqi Kurd, serving as Vice President of Iraq from March 1991 to the fall of Saddam Hussein in April 2003....
and Abdullah Kazim Ruwayyid, was killed by three gunmen in Baghdad. Barazan Ibrahim
Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti
Barzan Ibrahim al-Hasan al-Tikriti was one of three half-brothers of Saddam Hussein, and a leader of the Mukhabarat, the Iraqi intelligence service...
's lawyer Thamer Hamoud al-Khuzaie was also wounded in the attack.
On 28 November 2005, Chief Judge Rizgar Mohammed Amin adjourned the trial until 5 December to allow time to find replacements for two defense lawyers who were slain and another who fled Iraq after he was wounded. On 5 December, Saddam's legal defense team stormed out of the court after questioning the tribunal's legitimacy, and asking about return of defence papers seized by US Army troops and security issues regarding the protection of the defense. Saddam, along with his co-defendants, railed against Chief Judge Amin and the tribunal. The next day, after listening to hours of testimony against him, he lashed out at the judge. He said that he was exhausted, he did not intend on returning to the trial, and to "go to hell".
On 7 December 2005, Saddam refused to enter court, complaining of the conditions in which he was being held and the conduct of the trial. Saddam's complaints included, among other things, that he had not been able to change his clothes for four days.
On 12 December 2005, instead of cross-examining witnesses, Saddam accused his American captors of torturing him, saying, "I have been beaten on every place of my body, and the signs are all over my body."
On 23 January 2006, Rauf Rashid Abd al-Rahman
Rauf Rashid Abd al-Rahman
Rauf Rashid Abd al-Rahman was the replacement chief judge of the Supreme Iraqi Criminal Tribunal's Al-Dujail trial of Saddam Hussein in 2006....
was nominated interim chief judge of the tribunal. He replaced former chief judge Rizgar Amin
Rizgar Mohammed Amin
Rizgar Mohammed Amin is the former chief judge of the Iraqi Special Tribunal's Al-Dujail trial. He is the only judge whose name was revealed on the trial's opening on 19 October 2005, the names of the other four judges and all but two of his four colleagues faces not allowed to be shown during...
, also a Kurd, who resigned after complaining of government interference. Saddam and his co-defendants objected to the change in judge, citing bias after he ordered defendant Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti
Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti
Barzan Ibrahim al-Hasan al-Tikriti was one of three half-brothers of Saddam Hussein, and a leader of the Mukhabarat, the Iraqi intelligence service...
out of the court, and announced they would boycott the trial under Rahman.
On 29 January 2006, the trial was thrown in disarray after a courtroom session in which Saddam's half-brother Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti was dragged away by guards, the defence team walked out, and Saddam was ejected following a slanging match with chief judge Rauf Rashid Abd al-Rahman. Once order was restored, there was only half of the defendants and none of the defence team present.
On 1 February 2006, the defendants failed to show up in court.
On 15 March 2006, Saddam was called by the prosecution as a witness. On the stand, he began making political statements, insisting he was still President of Iraq. He got in an argument with the judge, who closed the trial to the public in response.
On 19 June 2006, Chief Prosecutor Jaafar al-Moussawi called for the death penalty for Saddam and four other defendants including Barzan al-Tikriti, Saddam's half-brother, Taha Yassin Ramadan, former Iraqi Vice President and Awad Hamed al-Bander, former chief judge of Saddam's Revolutionary Court. The suspects faced execution by hanging if convicted and sentenced to death.
On 21 June 2006, Saddam's chief defense lawyer, Khamis al-Obeidi
Khamis al-Obeidi
Khamis al-Obeidi was a lawyer defending Saddam Hussein and Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti, from the time the former leader's trial began in Baghdad on October 19, 2005 until his assassination. He was a Sunni Muslim, was married and had six children...
, was assassinated in Baghdad. Protesting the lack of international protection for lawyers, Saddam began a hunger strike. On 23 June 2006, it was reported that Saddam ended his hunger strike, having missed one meal.
On 27 June 2006, two of Saddam Hussein's lawyers, Ramsey Clark
Ramsey Clark
William Ramsey Clark is an American lawyer, activist and former public official. He worked for the U.S. Department of Justice, which included service as United States Attorney General from 1967 to 1969, under President Lyndon B. Johnson...
, a former US Attorney-General, and Curtis Doebbler
Curtis Doebbler
Dr. Curtis F.J. Doebbler is an international human rights lawyer who since 1988 has been representing individuals before international human rights bodies in Africa, Europe, the Americas and before United Nations bodies...
, held a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., to call for immediate security for all the Iraqi defense lawyers and to complain in a written statement that the trial was unfair, and was being conducted by the American authorities using Iraqis as a front. The two lawyers claimed that the United States had refused to provide adequate protection for the defense lawyers despite repeated requests that were made and that the United States was intentionally ensuring an unfair trial.
Verdict: 5 November 2006
Dujail
Dujail is a small Shia town in the Salah ad Din Governorate. It is situated about north of Iraq's capital, Baghdad, and has approximately 10,000 inhabitants. It is the site of the 1982 Dujail Massacre....
, in retaliation for the assassination attempt of 8 July 1982. When the judge announced the verdict, Saddam shouted, "Long live the people. Long live the Arab nation. Down with the spies. God is great
Takbir
The Takbīr or Tekbir is the Arabic term for the phrase ' . It is usually translated "God is [the] Greatest," or "God is Great". It is a common Islamic Arabic expression...
." Chief defense lawyer Khalil al-Dulaimi later quoted a statement from Saddam Hussein given just before the Court issued its verdict. He said that Saddam urged his countrymen to "unify in the face of sectarian strife". Al-Dulaimi added that Saddam's message to the people was to "pardon and do not take revenge on the invading nations, its civilians". An appeal
Appeal
An appeal is a petition for review of a case that has been decided by a court of law. The petition is made to a higher court for the purpose of overturning the lower court's decision....
, mandated by the Iraqi judicial system, followed. There was speculation that the appeals could last years, postponing his actual execution. However, on 26 December, Saddam's appeal was rejected and the death sentence was given. No further appeals were possible and Saddam had to be executed within 30 days of that date. The decision still had to be ratified by the Iraqi President but could not be commuted. Judge Arif Shaheen, one of the nine appeal judges, said, "It cannot exceed 30 days. As from tomorrow the sentence could be carried out at any time. The appeals court has issued its verdict. What we have decided today is compulsory."
On 30 December 2006 at approximately 6:05am Baghdad time, Saddam Hussein's sentence was carried out and he was executed by hanging.
Among Saddam's co-defendants, Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti
Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti
Barzan Ibrahim al-Hasan al-Tikriti was one of three half-brothers of Saddam Hussein, and a leader of the Mukhabarat, the Iraqi intelligence service...
, his half-brother and Iraq's intelligence chief at the time of the Dujail killings, and Awad Hamed al-Bandar
Awad Hamed al-Bandar
Awad Hamad al-Bandar was an Iraqi chief judge under Saddam Hussein's presidency. He was the head of the Revolutionary Court which issued death sentences against 143 Dujail residents, in the aftermath of the failed assassination attempt on the president on July 8, 1982 Awad Hamad al-Bandar ...
, who issued death sentences to Dujail residents as head of a Revolutionary Court, were also sentenced to death by hanging. They were executed on January 15, 2007. The former Iraqi vice-president Taha Yassin Ramadan
Taha Yassin Ramadan
Taha Yasin Ramadan al-Jizrawi was a prominent Iraqi Kurd, serving as Vice President of Iraq from March 1991 to the fall of Saddam Hussein in April 2003....
was sentenced to life in prison. However, on 12 February 2007, the sentence was changed to death by hanging, and Ramadan was executed on 20 March 2007.
Former Baath party officials in the Dujail region Abdullah Kadhem Roweed Al-Musheikhi
Abdullah Kadhem Roweed Al-Musheikhi
Abdullah Kadhem Ruaid is a former Baath party official in the Dujail region is Iraq, and the father of Mizher Abdullah Roweed Al-Musheikhi. He was convicted of involvement in the killings of 148 Shia Muslims during the Al-Dujail trial of Saddam Hussein, and was sentenced to 15 years in...
, his son Mizher Abdullah Roweed Al-Musheikhi
Mizher Abdullah Roweed Al-Musheikhi
Mizhar Abdullah Ruaid is a former Baath party official in the Dujail region is Iraq, and the son of Abdullah Kadhem Ruaid. He was convicted of involvement in the killings of 148 Shia Muslims during the Al-Dujail trial of Saddam Hussein, and was sentenced to 15 years in prison.-References:...
, and Ali Daeem Ali
Ali Daeem Ali
Ali Daeem Ali served as a Baath party official in Dujail in 1982, when he is accused of involvement in the executions of 148 Shia Muslims in the area. He was tried alongside Saddam Hussein and was sentenced to 15 years in prison.-References:...
were sentenced to 15 years in prison. Mohammed Azawi Ali, also a Baath party official in Dujail region, was acquitted due to a lack of evidence.
Iraq
President Jalal TalabaniJalal Talabani
Jalal Talabani is the sixth and current President of Iraq, a leading Kurdish politician. He is the first non-Arab president of Iraq, although Abdul Kareem Qasim was half Kurdish....
said in a statement, "I think this trial was fair", and "I must respect the independence of the Iraqi judiciary. Until the end I must be silent."
Prime Minister Nouri Maliki said the sentence may "help alleviate the pain of the widows and the orphans" who lived under Saddam's regime.
First Deputy Speaker of the Iraqi National Assembly Khaled al-Attiyah
Khaled al-Attiyah
Shaykh Khaled Abather al-Attiyah is an Iraqi politician who was elected in December 2005 to the Council of Representatatives as an independent member of the United Iraqi Alliance....
said "we expected the maximum penalty against the criminal Saddam Hussein and his henchmen because they committed horrible crimes against the Iraqi people, the Arabs, Muslims and the entire Western
Western culture
Western culture, sometimes equated with Western civilization or European civilization, refers to cultures of European origin and is used very broadly to refer to a heritage of social norms, ethical values, traditional customs, religious beliefs, political systems, and specific artifacts and...
community."
India
External Affairs Minister Pranab MukherjeePranab Mukherjee
Pranab Kumar Mukherjee is the current Finance Minister of India and leader of the current Lok Sabha.Mukherjee is a senior member of the Cabinet Committees on Economic Affairs, Infrastructure, Parliamentary Affairs, Political Affairs, Prices, Security, Unique Identification Authority of India,...
reacted guardedly to the death sentence, saying such verdicts should not appear to be "victor's justice" and should be acceptable to the people of Iraq and the international community. In a statement, he said "such life and death decisions require credible due process of law."
Belgium
Belgian Foreign Minister Karel De GuchtKarel De Gucht
Karel Lodewijk Georgette Emmerence De Gucht is a Belgian politician who has been the European Commissioner for Trade since 2010...
believed that carrying out the death penalty on a 69-year-old would be "unethical", reported flandersnews.be.
Meanwhile, the Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt
Guy Verhofstadt
Guy Verhofstadt is a Belgian politician who was the 47th Prime Minister of Belgium from 1999 to 2008. He is currently a Member of the European Parliament and leader of the Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe.- Early career :...
told the press that "justice has been done", although a spokesman for the Prime Minister later said that Verhofstadt felt that it would have been better to have tried Saddam Hussein at the International Criminal Court
International Criminal Court
The International Criminal Court is a permanent tribunal to prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression .It came into being on 1 July 2002—the date its founding treaty, the Rome Statute of the...
in The Hague
The Hague
The Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...
.
Ireland
A spokesperson for the Foreign Affairs Minister said "Ireland and its EU partners have made it clear in the past to Iraqi authorities that we are opposed to courts applying the death sentence."Italy
Prime Minister Romano ProdiRomano Prodi
Romano Prodi is an Italian politician and statesman. He served as the Prime Minister of Italy, from 17 May 1996 to 21 October 1998 and from 17 May 2006 to 8 May 2008...
said "While not wishing to play down the crimes... I cannot but express the firm opposition of the Italian government - as well as mine - to a death sentence. As I reiterated again today (27 December 2006) at the cabinet meeting, Italy is opposed to capital punishment, always and in all cases. It is a general principle that I reiterated firmly also at the United Nations."
Russia
Foreign affairs committee member Konstantin Kosachev made a cautious statement, saying he doubted the death penalty would be carried out. He said, "this is more of a moral ruling, revenge that modern Iraq is taking on the Saddam Hussein regime."United Kingdom
Foreign SecretarySecretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs
The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, commonly referred to as the Foreign Secretary, is a senior member of Her Majesty's Government heading the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and regarded as one of the Great Offices of State...
Margaret Beckett
Margaret Beckett
Margaret Mary Beckett is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament for Derby South since 1983, rising to become the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party under John Smith, from 18 July 1992 to 12 May 1994, and briefly serving as Leader of the Party following Smith's death...
said "it is right that those accused of such crimes against the Iraqi people should face Iraqi justice." Prime Minister Tony Blair stated that he is "against the death penalty, whether it is Saddam Hussein or anybody else."
Vatican City
The head of the Vatican'sHoly See
The Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, in which its Bishop is commonly known as the Pope. It is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and...
Council for Justice and Peace and Cardinal Renato Raffaele Martino, opposed the death sentence for Saddam Hussein, saying, "For me, punishing a crime with another crime — which is what killing for vindication is — would mean that we are still at the point of demanding an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth."
Canada
Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKayPeter MacKay
Peter Gordon MacKay, PC, QC, MP is a lawyer and politician from Nova Scotia, Canada. He is the Member of Parliament for Central Nova and currently serves as Minister of National Defence in the Cabinet of Canada....
said "my understanding is there is an appeal process to follow, so given that fact, I think it would be pre-emptive to be passing any judgments or making any firm public declarations until all of those avenues have been exhausted."
United States
The White HousePresident of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
spokesman Tony Snow
Tony Snow
Robert Anthony "Tony" Snow was an American journalist, political commentator, television news anchor, syndicated columnist, radio host, musician, and the third White House Press Secretary under President George W. Bush. Snow also worked for President George H. W. Bush as chief speechwriter and...
said the trial showed "absolute proof" that the judiciary in Iraq are independent. President George W. Bush in a statement said, "Saddam Hussein's trial is a milestone in the Iraqi people's efforts to replace the rule of a tyrant with the rule of law", and "today, the victims of this regime have received a measure of the justice which many thought would never come."
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe Exiles Forum in South AfricaSouth Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
welcomed Saddam's death sentence, and hoped it sent a message to Zimbabwe's dictator Robert Mugabe
Robert Mugabe
Robert Gabriel Mugabe is the President of Zimbabwe. As one of the leaders of the liberation movement against white-minority rule, he was elected into power in 1980...
, as well as deposed dictators Augusto Pinochet
Augusto Pinochet
Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte, more commonly known as Augusto Pinochet , was a Chilean army general and dictator who assumed power in a coup d'état on 11 September 1973...
of Chile and former Liberian dictator Charles Taylor, saying:
- "[We] believe that together with the Pinochet, Taylor, and other recent cases, this case sends an unequivocally clear and resounding message to dictators and perpetrators of serious crimes under international and national laws. [We] hope that this loud message will not escape the ears of tyrants like President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe and all those who serve under him in the commission of torture and other crimes against humanity."
Australia
Prime Minister John HowardJohn Howard
John Winston Howard AC, SSI, was the 25th Prime Minister of Australia, from 11 March 1996 to 3 December 2007. He was the second-longest serving Australian Prime Minister after Sir Robert Menzies....
said, "They could've easily allowed him to be arbitrarily executed as has happened in so many other countries, yet no, he could've been shot ... or something like that, but no, they were determined to have a transparent trial they were determined to demonstrate to the world that there was a new Iraq."
Mr Howard said he was opposed to the death penalty, but could not govern what another country did. Howard stated that the death penalty is not the issue of significance. "The real issue is that he was tried in an open, transparent fashion and one of the great marks of democratic society is due process and the rule of law and this mass murderer was given due process."
New Zealand
Prime MinisterPrime Minister of New Zealand
The Prime Minister of New Zealand is New Zealand's head of government consequent on being the leader of the party or coalition with majority support in the Parliament of New Zealand...
Helen Clark
Helen Clark
Helen Elizabeth Clark, ONZ is a New Zealand political figure who was the 37th Prime Minister of New Zealand for three consecutive terms from 1999 to 2008...
stated that the guilty verdict was appropriate but that she has "a long-standing objection to the death penalty and that will always be a concern to me." She declined to make a comment on whether the trial was fair, saying it was hard to determine from so far away.
Execution
Saddam was executed by hanging after being convicted of crimes against humanity following his trial and conviction for the illegal killings of 148 Shi'as in the town of Dujail in 1982. He was hanged on the first day of an important Islamic holiday, Eid ul-AdhaEid ul-Adha
Eid al-Adha or "Festival of Sacrifice" or "Greater Eid" is an important religious holiday celebrated by Muslims worldwide to commemorate the willingness of Abraham to sacrifice his son Ishmael as an act of obedience to God, before God intervened to provide him with a sheep— to sacrifice...
, 30 December 2006, at approximately 06:05 AM local time (03:05 UTC
Coordinated Universal Time
Coordinated Universal Time is the primary time standard by which the world regulates clocks and time. It is one of several closely related successors to Greenwich Mean Time. Computer servers, online services and other entities that rely on having a universally accepted time use UTC for that purpose...
). The execution was carried out at "Camp Justice," an Iraqi army base in Kazimain
Kazimain
al-Kāżimiyyah , is a town located in what is now a northern neighbourhood of Baghdad, Iraq about five kilometres from the city center. Al-Kāżimiyyah is one of nine administrative districts in Baghdad....
, a neighbourhood of northeast Baghdad. There were some foreign groups who wanted Saddam dead after Eid ul-Adha, but Prime Minister Maliki wanted Saddam dead before the New Year.
Criticism
- Critics, including Saddam's legal counsel Khalil al-Dulaimi, alleged that American officials had a heavy influence on the court. In a statement, Khalil said, "this court is a creature of the US military occupation, and the Iraqi court is just a tool and rubber stamp of the invaders."
- Khalil al-Dulaimi and various international commentators alleged that the date on which the verdict was read live to the world, 5 November 2006, was deliberately selected by the Bush Administration in order to influence the US midterm electionsUnited States general elections, 2006The 2006 United States midterm elections were held on Tuesday, November 7, 2006. All United States House of Representatives seats and one third of the United States Senate seats were contested in this election, as well as 36 state governorships, many state legislatures, four territorial...
which occurred two days later. This has been called a November SurpriseOctober surpriseIn American political jargon, an October surprise is a news event with the potential to influence the outcome of an election, particularly one for the U.S. presidency...
. The verdict was expected to be on 16 October 2006, but was postponed to consider recalling some of the witnesses. Even as the verdict was released verbally on 5 November, the written, final verdict was not released until days later. - The television link of the trial was provided by a US company which frequently edited out the sound of what Saddam and other defendants said, and sometimes edited the video as well.
- Some witnesses were told by court staff what to say.
- Judges were replaced numerous times, reportedly because of "leniency" towards the defence.
- All defence lawyers who questioned the court's legitimacy were ejected.
- A defence lawyer who showed images of US torture was ejected.
- Witnesses claimed to be forced or tortured to testify.
- Evidence was allegedly forged in numerous circumstances.
- Numerous witnesses' statements claimed the accused's innocence.
- An unidentified witness claimed chief prosecutor Jaafar al-Moussawi offered him $500 to give false evidence and said his family was threatened.
- Three witnesses told the court people allegedly killed by Saddam in Dujail are actually alive.
- A defense lawyer was abducted and killed.
More criticism
The Washington Post reported that "Americans have drafted most of the statutes under which Hussein and his associates are being tried". It also reported that "A US official in Baghdad confirmed last weekend that only the United States and Britain had contributed experts to advise the court on how to prosecute governments for war crimes and other such matters".The human rights organization Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
criticized the death sentence and said the trial was "deeply flawed and unfair." The process was marred by "serious flaws that call into question the capacity of the tribunal," Malcolm Stuart, director of Amnesty's Middle East and North Africa program, said. "In particular, political interference undermined the independence and impartiality of the court." The specific concerns raised by Amnesty International included the status of the trial as a "Special Trial" (unconstitutional according to the Iraqi Constitution), political interference in trial proceedings by the removal of a judge mid-trial, exclusion of members of the defense team at points in the trial, assassination of multiple members of the defence team, and the closure of the trial before the defence team had completed presenting its legal case.
In the opening statement of the Jury of Conscience of the World Tribunal on Iraq
World Tribunal on Iraq
The World Tribunal on Iraq was a people's court consisting of intellectuals, human rights campaigners and non-governmental organizations, and was active from 2003-2005. Set up following the 2003 invasion of Iraq it sprung from the anti-war movement and is modelled on the Russell Tribunal of the...
, keynote speaker Arundhati Roy
Arundhati Roy
Arundhati Roy is an Indian novelist. She won the Booker Prize in 1997 for her novel, The God of Small Things, and has also written two screenplays and several collections of essays...
retorted, "Saddam Hussein is being tried as a war criminal even as we speak. But what about those who helped to install him in power, who armed him, who supported him—and who are now setting up a tribunal to try him and absolve themselves completely?", referring to the assistance provided by the US government under President Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
during the Iran–Iraq War, as revealed incontrovertibly by documents declassified by the National Security Archive
National Security Archive
The National Security Archive is a 501 non-governmental, non-profit research and archival institution located in the George Washington University in Washington, D.C.. Founded in 1985 by Scott Armstrong, it archives and publishes declassified U.S. government files concerning selected topics of US...
.
U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, Opinion 31/2006
Even prior to the conclusion of the trial, the U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, in its Opinion 31/2006 dated 1 September 2006:(a) has held that the detention is arbitrary within Category III of the Working Group's categories (failure to provide a fair trial) [paragraph 27]; and
(b) has called upon the governments of Iraq and the USA to remedy the situation by providing a fair trial [paragraph 28].
See also
- Execution of Saddam HusseinExecution of Saddam HusseinThe execution of Saddam Hussein took place on December 30, 2006 . Saddam was sentenced to death by hanging, after being found guilty and convicted of crimes against humanity by the Iraqi Special Tribunal for the murder of 148 Iraqi Shi'ite in the town of Dujail in 1982, in retaliation for an...
- 2003 invasion of Iraq2003 invasion of IraqThe 2003 invasion of Iraq , was the start of the conflict known as the Iraq War, or Operation Iraqi Freedom, in which a combined force of troops from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Poland invaded Iraq and toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein in 21 days of major combat operations...
- Victor's justiceVictor's justiceThe label "victor's justice" is a situation in which an entity partakes in carrying out "justice" on its own basis of applying different rules to judge what is right or wrong for their own forces and for those of the enemy. Advocates generally charge that the difference in rules amounts to...
- Show trialShow trialThe term show trial is a pejorative description of a type of highly public trial in which there is a strong connotation that the judicial authorities have already determined the guilt of the defendant. The actual trial has as its only goal to present the accusation and the verdict to the public as...
External links
- Saddam's last hours
- Iraqi Special Tribunal (IST) homepage
- Grotian Moment: The Saddam Hussein Trial Blog
- Bombings kill over 60 people,mostly Shiites, 3 American soldiers, revenge for Saddam's death, 30 December 2006
- Shiite professor dies in Iraq, Diya al-Meqoter, one of many
- Daoud al-Qaissi, Saddam's singer executed
- blog about the danish documentary The Trial of Saddam Hussein (2007) (TV) by Catalan filmmaker Esteban Uyarra.