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Iraq Justice Minister Malek Dohan al-Hassan told a Swiss
newspaper that Saddam Hussein will be the last of 12 leaders
from the toppled regime to go on trial 'long after' next month's
elections.(AFP) |
Saddam Hussein met with a defense lawyer Thursday for the first time
since his capture a year ago, days before several of his top aides are due
to appear in court for hearings on alleged war crimes.
The unidentified attorney spent four hours with
the 67-year-old former dictator at Saddam's undisclosed
detention site, said his chief lawyer,
Ziad al-Khasawneh.
"He was in good health and his morale was high and very strong,"
al-Khasawneh said. "He looked much better that his earlier public
appearance when he was arraigned a few months ago."
The Iraqi interim government's push to get the trials for Saddam's
former lieutenants under way before the Jan. 30 national elections has led
to dissent even within the Iraqi Cabinet.
"Trials as symbolic as those against the dignitaries of the former
regime should only start after the establishment of an Iraqi government
with ballot-box legitimacy," Iraqi Justice Minister Malik Dohan al-Hassan
told the Geneva daily newspaper Le Temps in an interview published
Thursday.
Interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi said Tuesday that procedures could
begin as early as next week before the Iraqi Special Tribunal.
Saddam will not be among the first to appear in court. But his
notorious former right-hand man, Ali Hassan al-Majid — the ex-general
known as "Chemical Ali" for his use of chemical weapons — is expected to
appear along with 11 other former regime members at the initial
investigative court hearing next week.
"The cases against his (Saddam's) henchmen are probably less complicated to
prove than the cases against him," Stephen Orlofsky, a former federal judge who
toured Iraq to assess its judiciary, told CNN.
He said Saddam will face a special tribunal of
five judges that was created to try war crimes, crimes against humanity
and genocide
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(Agencies) | 
Updated: 2004-12-17 11:03