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IRAQ: SADDAM’S SENTENCE SHOULD BE THROWN OUT November 21, 2006
Zainab Osman
(SomaliNet) A new report says the Iraqi High Tribunal trial of Saddam Hussein was unfair and that the verdict should be thrown out.
For more than a decade, numerous human-rights organizations have forcefully made the case that Saddam Hussein is guilty of crimes against humanity.
So when his case was the first to be brought before the Iraqi High Tribunal, the court set up to try those considered responsible for decades of rights violations, it was no surprise the trial itself was considered a victory for rights advocates.
Because Hussein’s trial, which resulted in a sentence of death by hanging for his complicity in the 1982 murders of 148 people in the Shiite town of Dujail, was "fundamentally flawed," says Human Rights Watch, a leading advocacy group.
In a new 97-page report, "Judging Dujail," the New York-based organization says the trial's verdict is unsound and should be thrown out—marred by a torrent of procedural and substantive flaws. "The tribunal squandered an important opportunity to deliver credible justice,” said Nehal Bhuta, an international justice fellow at Human Rights Watch and author of the report, which was released Sunday.