Plot to kill Saddam trial judge foiled Mon. November 28, 2005
Afp
Baghdad -- Iraqi police said they have smashed an al-Qaeda cell plotting to kill the chief judge in charge of building the case against ousted leader Saddam Hussein, whose trial resumes on Monday after a five-week recess.
"We arrested 12 members of a cell linked to the Iraqi branch of al-Qaeda during a dawn raid on a house in eastern Kirkuk," in northern Iraq, police colonel Anwar Kader said Saturday.
"They confessed during questioning to planning to kill (chief judge) Raed al-Juhi this week."
Juhi is the chief investigative judge on the Iraqi High Tribunal which is tasked with judging former regime officials, including Saddam, for crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide.
Kader said all the suspects were Sunni Arabs from Kirkuk, from Saddam's hometown of Tikrit or from the restive western province of Al-Anbar.
The suspects also confessed to helping to carry out suicide attacks in the Kurdish city of Sulaimaniyah in October in which 10 people were killed, he said.
Security will be a top priority when the trial of Saddam and seven former henchmen resumes Monday in Baghdad on charges of killing 148 men and youths from the Shia town of Dujail, north of the capital, after the former leader escaped an assassination attempt there in 1982.
Saddam, 68, who refuses to recognize the court, and his former aides have pleaded not guilty to the charges. They face the death penalty if convicted.
On Monday, the court is expected to call the first witnesses for the prosecution, who may testify from behind screens or with faces masked to protect their anonymity.
Saddam is likely to face a raft of other charges, ranging from the massacre of Kurds in 1988, a brutal crackdown against Shias in 1991 and crimes committed during the wars against Iran and Kuwait.
Abdul Aziz Hakim, the leader of Iraq's most powerful Shia political party, on Sunday accused the judiciary of "weakness" because of the delay in bringing Saddam to trial, almost two years after his capture.
Hakim, who heads the Shia-based Supreme Council for the Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), blamed "the intervention of the Americans in the choice of judges, the presence of Baathists in the judicial system and the fear among judges because of the insecurity."
"This government wants to see Saddam dead, it wants him to face the death penalty, because that is the will of the people," he said.
Iraqi officials said they chose to start with the Dujail case because it is relatively straightforward and well-documented.
Saddam's habit of videotaping all his orders to ensure they were carried out has back-fired against him, said a source close to the investigation.
"It's up to the individual witnesses whether or not they show their faces or whether their identity is disguised in some other way," he said.
The trial opened on October 19, but immediately recessed to give lawyers time to prepare. The murder of two defence lawyers and the wounding of a third led however to the threat of a boycott by defence counsels.
US officials and lawyers said the threat was lifted after the lawyers were provided with security and after the United States promised to assist in the investigation of the murder of the lawyers.
Some have accused Shia-led militias, bent on retribution, for the murders, while others suspect Sunni Arab insurgents of targeting the lawyers in a bid to derail the trial.
Court sources said some lawyers have been allowed to recruit their own security detail, which will be paid for by the tribunal.
Saddam trial to resume, first witnesses expected
27 Nov 2005 - 18:19:19 GMT - Source: Reuters
By Paul Tait
BAGHDAD, Nov 28 (Reuters) - The trial of Saddam Hussein and seven aides on charges of crimes against humanity will resume in a fortified Baghdad courtroom on Monday, with witnesses expected to take the stand for the first time.
After assassinations of defence lawyers, a plot to kill the chief investigator and threats against witnesses, security is draconian. Some evidence will be heard from behind protective screens in the courtroom in Baghdad's fortress-like "green zone".
The deposed Iraqi president's trial was adjourned three hours after its opening on Oct. 19, to give the defence more time to prepare. A defiant Saddam questioned the legitimacy of the court.
The defence team might still need time to discuss strategy after the reported last-minute addition of two international observers, former U.S. attorney general Ramsey Clark and Najeeb al-Nauimi, former justice minister of Qatar.
Critics have accused Saddam of ordering mass killings and widespread torture over decades, but the legal charges brought against him so far refer to just one specific incident.
He and the other defendants are charged with ordering the deaths of 148 young Shi'ite men from the town of Dujail, north of Baghdad, following an attempt on Saddam's life in July 1982.
Residents of Dujail told Reuters at the weekend that death threats had already been made against some witnesses.
Most of the 40-day break has been dominated by security issues after one defence lawyer was murdered the day after the trial began and another in early November, throwing proceedings into chaos. A third defence lawyer fled Iraq after death threats.
An Iraqi police chief told Reuters on the eve of the resumption that eight men had been detained and had confessed to plotting to kill chief investigator Raed Jouhi.
As chief investigator of the tribunal, Jouhi built the case against Saddam and has been the public face of the tribunal.
The lawyers still involved in representing the eight defendants have agreed to return to court only after promises of undisclosed improvements in security were made.
Another adjournment is possible. One defence lawyer said the team would seek at least a further three-month postponement.
The case could proceed for at least three days this week, but the holding of national elections on Dec. 15 adds to the argument for a quick adjournment.
FORMER U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL
A defence team spokeswoman said the attendance of Clark and Nauimi had been approved by U.S. advisers to the court. But an official close to the court said on Sunday no application had yet been made by the defence team for international observers.
Clark is a controversial figure who was the U.S. government's top legal official in the late 1960s before becoming an anti-Vietnam war activist and later a defender of figures including Slobodan Milosevic, on trial for war crimes at The Hague.
Clark told Reuters before leaving Amman for the Iraqi capital on Sunday that he hoped to strengthen Saddam's defence.
"Our plan is to go to court in Baghdad on Monday morning representing the defence counsel as defence support," he said.
"A fair trial in this case is absolutely imperative for historical truth," said 77-year-old Clark, who has also offered advice to former Liberian leader Charles Taylor in the past.
"It is absolutely essential that the court is legal in its constitution. A court cannot be a court unless it is absolutely independent of all external pressures and forces," he said.
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Four Westerners 'seized in Iraq'
At least 200 foreigners have been abducted in the past 18 months.
Updated: Sunday, 27 November 2005 - 19:12 GMT
Four Western aid workers have been kidnapped in Iraq, Canada's foreign ministry says.
A senior official told CBC television channel that two of those abducted were Canadian nationals.
The UK embassy in Baghdad said it was investigating reports that a third was a Briton. The fourth is said to be American but there is no confirmation.
It is estimated that over the past year and a half, at least 200 foreigners have been abducted in Iraq.
Advisory
CBC said Dan McTeague, the parliamentary secretary for Canadians abroad, had confirmed the abductions.
Mr McTeague said the aid agency involved had asked that no names be disclosed.
Canada has an advisory to its citizens not to travel to Iraq.
"Under no circumstances should Canadians be there," Mr McTeague said. "The situation remains very unstable... and continues to be a danger for all foreign travellers."
The UK foreign office has confirmed the British embassy is investigating the reports of the missing Briton as a matter of urgency but could add no further details.
In October the al-Qaeda in Iraq militant group said it had abducted two Moroccan embassy employees.
Also in October, Guardian reporter Rory Carroll was taken at gunpoint in the Baghdad suburb of Sadr City but was freed after 36 hours.
In August US freelance reporter, Steven Vincent, was shot dead after being abducted in Basra, southern Iraq.