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Hussein Trial Halts Again, Setting Off Wave of Criticism
Deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein addressing the court in December. Yesterday's hearing was to have been the first session in roughly a month.
(Pool Photo/by John Moore Via Associated Press)
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The government objected that the judge named to replace Amin had ties to Hussein's Baath Party. He was abruptly removed, and a Kurdish judge from a northern town where Hussein's military is alleged to have killed thousands with poison gas was named on Monday.
Two judges in the tribunal told the Associated Press that the collapse of Tuesday's hearing was due to more wrangling about the head judge's spot, not because of the pilgrimage to Mecca.
Asked what the problem was, one of the judges told the Associated Press, "Matters are not in our hands." He did not elaborate. The news service did not identify the judges.
A U.S. Embassy spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.
This past weekend, the U.S. official knowledgeable about the trial maintained that the Iraqi High Tribunal "is an independent organization" and not run by Americans.
Outbursts by Hussein and his co-defendants actually were providing more evidence against them, the official said. And despite the delays, he said, the court had heard testimony from 14 witnesses on atrocities in the eight days of hearings.
Michael Scharf, another U.S. law professor who helped train the judges and a defender of the proceedings here, called that "a very efficient pace even by American judicial standards." Scharf posted his comment on a Web log set up by Case Western Reserve University School of Law.
Special correspondent Saad Sarhan in Najaf contributed to this report.
