Saddam Hussein’s trial may go live on television

BAGHDAD: Fallen Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s trial to start next week will be public, open to the media and possibly broadcast live, Iraq’s chief judge in the case Raed al-Juhi said on Thursday.

“The trial will be public,” Juhi said. “And I hope that it will be broadcast live on television.”

Saddam and seven henchman go on trial next Wednesday for the 1982 murders of 143 inhabitants of Dujail, a Shiite village north of Baghdad where the former president’s motorcade had come under attack.

Saddam and his associates, who face the death penalty, will be tried by the Iraqi Special Tribunal established in December 2003 under the US occupation.   

Juhi, who is also the tribunal's chief spokesman, left open the possibility that the trial could be delayed after an initial court appearance by Saddam and his co-defendants on October 19. “The decision is up to the tribunal,” he said. 

Saddam’s Iraqi lawyer Khalil Dulaimi has already said he will ask for a delay on the opening day, claiming that the defence had not been given full access to Saddam himself or full details of the charges against him. The first day will likely consist of a simple reading of charges along with motions by defence lawyers, according to a source close to the court.

Juhi said that international observers could follow the trial, and that 12 other cases against Saddam were also being prepared. Some cases, such as one concerning the Al-Anfal campaign of massacres against the Kurds — during which chemical weapons were allegedly used against Kurdish villages — “could be closed quickly”, Juhi said.

Meanwhile, a former CIA intelligence officers have concluded that the White House ignored a CIA assessment warning of major chaos in Iraq after the removal of Saddam Hussein, The New York Times said.

The July 2004 review said the administration of President George W. Bush “apparently paid little or no attention” to the prewar Central Intelligence Agency assessment, the daily said.

While the review panel acknowledged the CIA’s mistaken prewar assessments of Iraq’s weapons program, it said “the analysis was right” on cultural and political issues related to postwar Iraq.