Rulers determined tyrant will stand trial in Baghdad

BAGHDAD - The arraignment of Saddam Hussein will be the biggest war crimes trial since the prosecution of the leading Nazis at Nuremberg at the end of World War II.

Although the stage is set, there are still competing claims for where and who should try the 66-year-old former dictator. The Iraqi Governing Council say the Americans will want to hand Saddam over to them so that they can put him on trial at a special court in Baghdad.

International jurists would prefer a United Nations tribunal along the lines of the one established to prosecute those accused of the war crimes committed in the former Yugoslavia. The Americans have yet to declare their hand but are unlikely to support an international court, possibly made up of judges from countries who have consistently opposed the war.

The most likely forum is the Iraqi war crimes tribunal that was set up last week with the express purpose of prosecuting leading members of Saddam's government for genocide and crimes against humanity. At the time, the Iraqis even envisaged bringing a case against Saddam in his absence should he fail to fall into the hands of the Americans.

Adnan Pachachi, a member of Iraq's Governing Council, gave assurances yesterday that Saddam would face open, public trial inside Iraq. "There's no question that the process will be an Iraqi process," he said.

Under the constitution of the new Iraqi war crimes tribunal there is some provision for the inclusion of international judges, for lawyers to represent the defendants and an appeals system. But groups such as Human Rights Watch are concerned that the court retains the power to impose a death penalty and may be vulnerable to "revenge justice".

Human Rights Watch said that the new law did not require that judges and prosecutors had experience working on complex criminal cases and cases involving serious human rights crimes. Nor did the law permit the appointment of non-Iraqi prosecutors or investigative judges, even if they had relevant experience investigating and prosecuting human rights cases. Amnesty International said Saddam should be given POW status and allowed visits by the Red Cross.

The charges are expected to be framed as widely as possible and to go back as far as July 17, 1968, the day Saddam's Baath Party came to power.

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Herald Feature: Iraq