SADDAM HUSSEIN CAPTURE AND EXECUTION TRIAL

'Even a person like Saddam Hussein should not be sentenced to death,' he said.Īnd yet for George W. Novak opposed the sentence that had been meted out at the end of the trial. 'This would be a good chance for bringing Saddam Hussein to a truly independent court and we now have the International Criminal Court,' he said.

SADDAM HUSSEIN CAPTURE AND EXECUTION TRIAL

Manfred Nowak, the United Nations' Special Investigator on Torture, strongly opposed the way Saddam's trial was conducted. He described the appeals process as 'even more flawed than the trial.' Richard Dicker, Director of Human Rights Watch's International Justice Program said, 'It defies imagination that the Appeals Chamber could have thoroughly reviewed the 300-page judgment and the defense's written arguments in less than three weeks' time.' Saddam's defense team was also only allowed two weeks, instead of 30 days, in which to read and respond to the trial judgment and when they did file an appeal against the sentence, it took the Iraqi Appeals Chamber less than 21 days to quash the appeal. Witnesses and defense lawyers died because the tribunal would not, or could not, protect them - and, throughout the trial, the tribunal routinely ignored complaints from Saddam Hussein's lawyers about the proceedings. In its November 2006 report, 'Judging Dujail: The First Trial Before the Iraqi High Tribunal,' Human Rights Watch identified serious flaws with the proceedings.įor a year after his arrest, Saddam was denied access to legal counsel.

Saddam's experience before the Supreme Iraqi Criminal Tribunal (S.I.C.T.) was cruel and it was torture. Malcolm Smart, Amnesty International's director of the Middle East and North Africa Program described Saddam's trial as 'a shabby affair, marred by serious flaws that call into question the capacity of the tribunal, as currently established, to administer justice fairly, in conformity with international standards.' It also prohibits, 'The passing of sentences and the carrying out of executions without previous judgment pronounced by a regularly constituted court affording all the judicial guarantees which are recognized as indispensable by civilized peoples.'Īnd just like the motives of the war on Iraq, the independence and impartiality of the court that sentenced Saddam Hussein to death is questionable. The convention makes it illegal to torture prisoners.Īrticle 3 of the convention prohibits, 'Violence to life and person, in particular murder of all kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment and torture.' It is supposed to protect prisoners of war like Saddam Hussein. The Third Geneva Convention is supposed to protect captured military personnel. In itself, this act alone made him a prisoner of war because he was part of the Iraqi army's chain of command, and before his capture, he wore a military uniform and bore arms openly.īut instead of treating him with the dignity and respect that should be accorded to prisoners of war, the United States handed him over to an Iraqi government whose legitimacy is questionable knowing that there was a strong possibility that the government would execute him. Saddam was captured by United States soldiers on Dec. As a prisoner of war, he was entitled to fair and humane treatment as well as protection from summary execution. 30.īefore his execution, Saddam Hussein was a prisoner of war. Saddam Hussein was killed before dawn, under cover of darkness, on Dec. Opinion Saddam Hussein's Execution Is a War CrimeĪ video grab taken from Al Iraqiya television shows ousted Iraq president Saddam Hussein moments before being hanged in Baghdad.

Saddam hussein capture and execution