"Press Release"
The Defense Committee for President Saddam Hussein and his Comrades
Released from the Defense Lawyer's residence inside the Green Zone in Iraq on the 6th of November 2006
The mockery of the Dujail trial ended today
by rendering unjust sentences to execute President Saddam Hussein, Mr. Awad
Al-Bandar and Mr. Barazan Ibrahim Hasan , Mr. Tahan Yassin Ramadan had been
sentenced to life imprisonment, Mr.AbdullahKazim, Mr.Mizhir Abdullah Ruwaid and
Mr.Ali Diyih Ali were sentenced to long terms of imprisonment.
These unjust sentences issued today by the so-called "the Iraqi High Criminal
Court", which is directed by the American occupation, have come to result of a
systematic approach of this illegal court that made its conduct, marked with
showing disrespect to principles of justice and the basic rules of international
and Iraqi laws, which resulted in grave and continued violations to the
fundamental rules of criminal proceedings where judges were vested by the
occupation from among the enemies of President Saddam and his comrades. Those
judges revealed in more than one instance, and by more than one statement, that
they are un-impartial, un-independent and biased against the President and his
comrades. The proceedings of the trial revealed also, that the panel chamber,
which rendered the conviction, is fully submissive to the will of the occupier
and its subordinate government. Thus, the tried persons were deprived from the
basic opportunity to defend themselves; defense lawyers were assassinated,
threatened, insulted, displaced out of their country and dismissed from the
courtroom. The defense witnesses were pursued out, arrested and terrorized.
Defense attorneys were denied access to the documents and evidence of the file
of the case, while millions of dollars were dedicated to the Prosecution to
prepare the evidence and to call prosecution witnesses. The proceedings of the
court turned into a show to represent the claimants' claims and the persons who
were described as prosecution witnesses. All of this took place amidst utter
lack of security and ceaseless threats and terror against the defense lawyers.
It has been evident to all, that the government authorities issued plenty of
decisions and statements and adopted measures which show that the government has
prior and sure knowledge of the sentences before they were rendered in the
courtroom, in particular as Nouri Al-Maliki has called the Iraqis to order while
they express their joy. This call came before the sentences were announced by
the court. This proves the correctness of our repeated confirmation that these
sentences (the Court's decision) was pre-made along time ago but it was
announced in this strange and abnormal timing, in order to consolidate the
electoral campaign of Goerge W.Bush, while all the indicators show that his
party is facing before its constituency. These difficulties are due to the
policies of hegemony which as it seems will not have an end until he washes his
hands with the blood of the Iraqis in midday light not only by bombarding them
with all kinds of weapons and destroying their country and throwing it amid a
vicious circle of anarchy, civil war and division, but also by killing their
leaders and symbols not for a reason except that they insisted to stand up to
face the American boastfulness and arrogance and to defend the liberty, dignity
and independence of the nation.
The Defense Committee for President SaddamHussein and his comrades has done its
utmost to put the trial on the right legal track from the beginning. In this
regard, the Defense Committee tried to demonstrate the illegality and
illegitimacy of he court according to all internation treaties and conventions
and also to the provisions of the Iraqi law itself. The Defense Committee also
submitted dozens of legal requests,
statements and motions. The court should
have halted the proceedings until it considers and decides on each one of these
requests separately in order to ensure due process by responding to the
arguments. That has not been the case as the requests of the defense were
neglected and went unanswered. The court ended to the extent of issuing its
sentences without considering the defense' final submissions and without
allowing the defense lawyers to make their final oral argumentations as provided
for in criminal procedures for all courts in the world. The court crowned its
violations to the right to defense by dismissing Mr.Ramsey Clark – the dignified
American lawyer and the member of the Defense Committee – out of the courtroom.
He was moved out in a rough and insulting way after the presiding judge of the
first panel chamber openly offended, abused him and threw Mr.Clark's written
submission by moving his hand in a way that contradicts the norms of judiciary
and the morals of the judges.
The Defense Committee holds the court, and those who stand behind it,
responsible for all moral, historical and legal consequences of rendering such
an unjust verdict. The Defense Committee also considers the court responsible
for the blood of the martyred Iraqi lawyers, who were assassinated one after
another while they were doing their holy duty.
The death sentences and the other unjust verdicts of today directly contradicts
all the decisions, resolutions and reports of several international bodies,
institutions and organizations, especially the decision (opinion) rendered by
the U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention which concluded that the detention
of President Saddam Hussein is arbitrary. This deems the proceedings as null.
The same position is echoed by many reports issued by the representative of the
U.N. on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers in addition to many other reports
and statements which were issued by various international bodies about the void
proceedings of the trial and its lacking to all guarantees and requirements of a
fair trial.
As a result of what is mentioned above, the Defense Committee urges all
international, Arab and local bodies, parties, personalities and activists
whether political or legal to adopt the necessary stand in order to put an end
to this mockery, to halt the proceedings of other trials, to deem as null and
void all the unjust decisions of this court and to prevent its implementation so
that the principles of justice and fairness may prevail, the peace and security
in the region may be preserved and the pious blood of the Iraqi people which is
beinmg shed in occupied Iraq every day is saved.
Khaleel Dolimi
Wadood Fawzi
Ramsey Clark
Zyad Nijdawi
Issam Gazawai
Mohammad Monieb
Ahmad Siddiq
Javeer Savadera
Jordan – Amman
Tel : 00965166679 Fax : 0096265166689
Mailing Address 841073 Amman 11181 Jordann
Email :
Isnad@wanadoo.jo