Posted on 01/24/2006 6:59:12 PM PST by HAL9000
The trial of ousted Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was postponed after the newly-appointed chief judge objected to being searched, a defence lawyer said Tuesday."What happened was when the new judge came to the court he was searched vigorously by the Americans, which he did not like," said Najib al-Nuami, who represents Saddam.
Rauf Rashid Abdel Rahman "complained about it, saying why should he be searched," according to Nuami.
Another defence lawyer, who declined to be named, said he too heard the hearing was postponed because Abdel Rahman "was unhappy with security procedures, including searches".
The court put off the hearing, which would have been the eighth since the trial began three months ago, because some witnesses were unable to attend, according to investigating judge Raed al-Juhi.
"Due to the fact some of the complainants could not make it to attend the court, some of them are out of Iraq and some are on pilgrimage, the court decided to postpone the session until Sunday," he told reporters, reading from a court statement.
He declined to take questions.
Security measures are very strict with lawyers, witnesses and journalists carefully vetted and searched at the court.
Rahman, a previously unknown Kurdish magistrate was appointed at the last minute on Monday to preside over the trial after the previous chief judge Rizkar Mohammed Amin quit following criticism that he was too lenient with the defendants.
Nuami said there also appeared to be pressure on Abdel Rahman from the present government.
"There is tremendous government pressure on him from the very first day, which was also the case with the previous judges, which is why they quit," Nuami told AFP.
"The pressure is to speed up the trial, not to give us a chance to give a good defense, and shut up our clients," he said.
The trial of Saddam and seven other co-defendants was postponed until Sunday.
Saddam and the other defendants face charges including murder and torture over the massacre of more than 140 Shiites following an attempt on the life of the ousted dictator in 1982 in the village of Dujail.
If found guilty, they could be hanged.
I imagine it could only have been worse had he liked it.
What a damn baby...
Mark my words, Saddam is going to walk. The Iraqis don't have the cojones to do what needs to be done.
LOL. That would be an attention getter.
"he was searched vigorously by the Americans, which he liked"
We should have stuffed a grenade into Saddam's spider hole, and called it a day. Then we should have force fed them their new constitution, like MacArthur did to the Japanese. We put way too much onto the shoulders of the Iraqis, and they weren't ready for it. Now Saddam's trial is O.J.esqe comedy, and Iraq's halfway to becoming Iran Lite.
sound like our guards were afraid this judge might have had the cojones to do it and end this stuff right away. I don't think sodomite is going to get out of this alive.
He's not going to walk as long as coalition forces are on the ground.
And the U.S. will have a presence in Iraq into the unforeseeable future.
And I'm not even going to start about the probable reaction of the Iraqi people if Saddam isn't dealt with properly.
Don't believe the B.S. the media feeds people about Iraqi sentiment concerning Saddam. The majority of the Iraqis are fiercely opposed to Saddam and won't stand for an unsatisfactory end to this.
We just need to be a little patient. This is new to them and they're in an adjustment phase.
This "trial" of Saddam is a sorry farce which shoild be terminated before it does any more harm.
Saddam's major crime (from a US perspective) was tugging on Superman's cape. IF we were to be the agents of infinite justice, he should have been shot on sight.
IF people who live in the former Ottoman vilayets of Mosul, Mesopotamia, and Basra (known in the media as "Iraqis") were to be the agents of infinite justice, he should have been turned over to the Kurds or Sistani two years ago.
The only possible bad outcome resulting from Saddam's prolonged and inexplicable survival after his capture would be his return to power. His best chance will come after the collapse of his show trial (now in progress) and the upcoming attack on Iran.
We should have killed him when we had the chance.
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