Hussein Verdict Near After Trial With 'Serious Shortcomings'

Saddam Hussein stood as a witness was sworn in last month. Of the seven defendants on trial, he and two others face the death penalty if convicted. (By David Furst -- Associated Press)

Officials in Iraq's Shiite-led government tried several times to rein in the defendants, triggering complaints by international rights groups; Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and some U.N. agencies all faulted the proceedings.

"Undoubtedly, there have been serious, serious shortcomings," said Richard Dicker, director of Human Rights Watch's international justice program.

The trial's chief judge resigned midway through the proceedings, complaining that Shiite and Kurdish political leaders and officials were pressuring him for being too easy on Hussein. The judge in line to succeed him was blocked by Shiite officials because he had been a member of Hussein's Baath Party. Such intervention "constitutes improper political interference and undermining of the political independence of the court," Dicker said.

Judges allowed prosecuting attorneys to introduce evidence without giving the defense a chance to preview it, something Dicker called "trial by ambush."

As the defense was laying out its own evidence near the end of the trial, the new chief judge, Raouf Rasheed Abdel-Rahman, shut down testimony with some defense witnesses still waiting to take the stand. "We are done with witnesses. . . . If those 26 were not able to make the case, then 100 will not," Abdel-Rahman declared.

The turmoil outside also intruded. Gunmen assassinated three of Hussein's lawyers and other lawyers working for his co-defendants.

"It's fair to say that really the tribunal failed to meet key fair-trial standards in its conduct of this Dujail trial," Dicker said by telephone from New York. The failures, he said, will "put into serious question the legitimacy of the verdict."

If the verdict for Hussein is guilty and the sentence death, the 69-year-old former dictator would go to the gallows. Western analysts differed over whether such an outcome could be supported.

Dicker rejected the idea that Hussein convicted himself with his courtroom boasts. "I was never clear what the scope of the responsibility he was assuming was," Dicker said.

Scharf, on the other hand, described Hussein's statements of accountability as capping the case and called the procedural shortcomings incidental.

A five-judge panel has been preparing the verdicts for months. Charged with capital crimes, in addition to Hussein, are Ibrahim and former vice president Taha Yassin Ramadan; the rest of the defendants were comparatively low-ranking Baath Party functionaries and are believed by observers to have the best chance of acquittal.

Any convictions would automatically go to a nine-judge appellate panel. The panel has unlimited time to rule, but once it does, any sentences must be carried out within 30 days.

Iraq's Defense Ministry announced Friday that it was putting its soldiers on alert and canceling vacations in anticipation of the judges' ruling.

"This is a precaution in case a verdict is issued against the tyrant, no matter what the verdict might be," said Mohammed al-Askari, a ministry spokesman.

Special correspondent Naseer Nouri contributed to this report.