Iraqi Judge Recalls Hussein's Trial as a Turning Point

Raid Juhi Hamadi al-Saedi, in Washington this summer on a fellowship, was chief investigative judge of the special tribunal that tried Saddam Hussein. "This trial laid the groundwork for a new philosophy for Iraqis," he said. (By Gerald Martineau -- Post)
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As a Shiite and a graduate of Baghdad University's law school, Juhi said, he felt obliged to join the Baath Party, despite his lack of conviction. His first application for the Judicial Institute's master's program had been rejected on the grounds he was not a member. He graduated from the institute in 2002 and was appointed chief investigating judge in the southern city of Najaf.

In March 2003, U.S.-led troops invaded Iraq. "A scary time," Juhi recalled. "We were stuck in the middle." He had to leave Najaf to protect his family, he said, and returned to Baghdad to find out whether he still had a job. To his surprise, he did: "According to the Geneva Conventions and the laws of war, U.S. troops did not have the right to make us resign."

He returned to Najaf on April 21, found an undamaged corner in the charred courthouse and resumed routine services with his skeleton staff. The radical de-Baathification strategy that ripped most other Iraqi institutions apart had spared them. Juhi undertook a corruption probe involving the former mayor of Najaf that ended up landing the mayor in jail for 15 years.

Then, within the space of four months, came the murders of two revered Shiite religious figures, each counted on as a voice of moderation for the Shiite majority in Iraq. In April, Abdul Majid al-Khoei was hacked to death outside Najaf's Imam Ali mosque in an attack for which Juhi later indicted the radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and 11 of his followers. In August, two days before Juhi was due to head for Baghdad to become a prosecutor at the Central Criminal Court of Iraq, Mohammed Bakir al-Hakim, an exiled cleric deeply critical of the Baathist regime, was killed when a rigged car blew up as he left Friday prayers. One hundred people were killed and 200 injured. Again, Juhi was tasked with investigating. A suspect later confessed he was from al-Qaeda.

In September, Juhi transferred to the criminal court in Baghdad. Within 10 months, he was recruited to the special tribunal that eventually ordered Hussein's execution. When the Iraqi Judicial Council and the office of occupation chief L. Paul Bremer asked him to help in the Hussein case and advise them on procedure, he declined.

"I can't help. I have my job, and I am not an adviser, I am a judge. And this is not my court," was his initial response. "They talked me into it. They gave me the authority. 'We need you there, and we can give you an order,' they told me."

He thought about the enemies he would make but shook off his fears. "If you are afraid, it will paralyze you," he said he told himself. "We had criticized the lack of rule of law before, and this was our opportunity to make a new justice in Iraq." Juhi was in.

His work load as the tribunal's chief investigative judge was daunting. He could focus on little else, he recalled, including his unresolved discomfort.

"As a human being, I was nervous about how to do my job right. I was born in Iraq, during Saddam's regime, finished all my degrees under him, and my responsibility to create new justice was centered on this case. It was huge," he said.

To hear Juhi tell it, both men were on trial, facing different expectations and verdicts.

"We were looking for international standards," Juhi noted of the preparatory phase. "For the first time, there was a conflict between domestic and international standards, and we had to work very hard." He read all the statutes connected with the case and documentation of alleged crimes from 1968 to 2003. Scores of witnesses were debriefed. "With this big load and 16 hour days, I lost all feeling."

"The first hearing was just the first step," he said, referring to the pretrial proceedings. The challenge of "how to face Saddam" loomed large. In the courtroom, Hussein put on presidential airs and exploited his legendary charisma, Juhi said, adding that he often had to chide him for being disruptive.