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Hussein Trial Judges What Passed for Judgment
Saddam Hussein, right, and Awad Haman Bander, the former chief of the Revolutionary Court, listened to the presiding judge as their trial opened Wednesday.
(By Bob Strong -- Associated Press)
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The identities of the prosecutors and all but one of the judges on the five-member panel were concealed on the opening day of the trial for security reasons. No measures were extended to the defense lawyers of the eight accused men, the Associated Press reported. The Iraqi government said Friday that the defense had not asked for protection.
In a flower shop in central Baghdad on Saturday, people expressed mixed emotions at seeing their former leader on trial.
"No matter what he had done, he was our leader," said Bushra Younis, tying a bouquet of fake tiger lilies for a customer. "I am very sad. I feel sorry for him."
Aiham Adwar, another worker at the shop, said that Bander's court "was a special court. No one knew anything about it. I didn't know him. I had never seen him before."
The workers at the shop, all Christians, said they did not know whether Bander should be punished for his role in the killings of the Dujail villagers. After all, they said, invoking the defense used in the Nuremberg trials, Bander was simply applying the law of the land.
"When the Americans came here, they shot people who were trying to stop them," Adwar said. "They were applying the law. Why is this different?"
At a trendy eyewear shop down the street, Ani Yacoub said he had been thinking about the concept of justice since the trial, which recessed until Nov. 28.
"Many Iraqis feel something for Saddam," he said. "But we need a law. There's no law. We just want security."
Yacoub said he would support Hussein if the former leader returned to power. "It makes no difference to us," he said about the trial. "We want to live safely."
Special correspondent Naseer Nouri contributed to this report.
