Sunday, July 17, 2005
CNN: Iraq brings first charges against Saddam Hussein
The charges were announced by Judge Raed Juhi, chief investigative judge of the tribunal. They are connected with a 1982 series of detentions and executions after an assassination attempt against Saddam in Dujayl.
Charges against five other men were announced in February. The men will not be tried individually.
No trial date was announced, but under Iraqi law Saddam could stand trial as early as September, because of a minimum 45-day period following referral for trial.
On July 8, 1982, a convoy carrying Saddam traveled through the town of Dujayl, a Shiite village north of Baghdad, and was attacked by a small band of residents. A series of detentions and executions in the town followed the incident. According to the tribunal, 15 people were summarily executed and some 1,500 others spent years in prison with no charges and no trial date. Ultimately, another 143 were put on "show trials" and executed, according to the tribunal...
Imagine the degree of care for consensual justice that Saddam is receiving compared to what his millions of victims did not receive. But some say Bush and Blair are the monsters.