Court Drops Charges Against Saddam

[Amianthus]

(Note: No, it's not what you think. They cancelled his remaining charges since he's no longer alive to stand trial on them. Guess they did charge him with all those others deaths as well, contrary to what we heard a few weeks ago. So, we know those who lamented that "they didn't bother" to try him on the deaths of the Kurds, etc, because they "knew the charges were bogus" are wrong. They were going to try him if he didn't get the death sentence for the other charges.)

Jan 8, 4:31 AM (ET)

By SINAN SALAHEDDIN
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Saddam Hussein's trial for the killing of 180,000 Kurds in the 1980s resumed Monday with the late dictator's seat empty, nine days after he went to the gallows. The court's first order of business was to drop all charges against Saddam.

Six co-defendants still face charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity for their roles in a military campaign code-named Operation Anfal during the 1980-88 Iraq-Iran war.

Shortly after the court reconvened Monday, a bailiff called out the names of the accused and the six men walked silently into the courtroom one after another.

Chief Judge Mohammed Oreibi al-Khalifa said the court decided to stop all legal action against the former president, since "the death of defendant Saddam was confirmed."

Saddam was sentenced to death for the killing of 148 Shiites and hanged on Dec. 30 in a chaotic execution that has drawn global criticism for the Shiite-dominated government.

All seven defendants in the Anfal case, including Saddam, had pleaded innocent to charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Saddam and one other man also pleaded innocent to the additional charge of genocide.

The six remaining defendants - all senior members of Saddam's ousted regime - include his cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as "Chemical Ali" for his alleged use of chemical weapons against Iraqi Kurds.

The other defendants are former Defense Minister Sultan Hashim al-Tai, who was the commander of Task Force Anfal and head of the Iraqi army 1st Corps; Sabir al-Douri, Saddam's military intelligence chief; Taher Tawfiq al-Ani, former governor of Mosul and head of the Northern Affairs Committee; Hussein Rashid Mohammed, former deputy director of operations for the Iraqi Armed Forces and Farhan Mutlaq Saleh, former head of military intelligence's eastern regional office.
Article

[hnumpah]

Guess they did charge him with all those others deaths as well, contrary to what we heard a few weeks ago.

Duhhhh. He was in the middle of another trial when he was lynched.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, due process, sentence carried out, and all that. The way it was handled was no better than a good old fashioned wild west lynching. Seems the main complaint I heard was not that he was not being tried for the other crimes, but that they chose this one (the killing of 140-some-odd Shiites) to hang him for, after a trial by a Shiite judge, in a court overseen by Maliki (a Shiite who was a member of a political party that had been banned on pain of death), and the manner in which the lynching was carried out, all of which made it seem to be merely for revenge.

[BT]

Well you know how Iraqi's are. They are all about revenge.

[Religious Dick]

(Note: No, it's not what you think. They cancelled his remaining charges since he's no longer alive to stand trial on them. Guess they did charge him with all those others deaths as well, contrary to what we heard a few weeks ago. So, we know those who lamented that "they didn't bother" to try him on the deaths of the Kurds, etc, because they "knew the charges were bogus" are wrong. They were going to try him if he didn't get the death sentence for the other charges.)

If he didn't get the death penalty?

ROFLMAO!!

Right.

Let's see a show of hands from the people who seriously believed there was a serious possibility of his actually getting anything else.

Prediction: I'm not bloody likely to see the hands of anyone but the most fervent Bushbots.

[BT]

Prediction: I'm not bloody likely to see the hands of anyone but the most fervent Bushbots.

I doubt the Bushbots care enough about Saddam's fate to bother even raising their hand.

I know i don't.

[kimba1]

doesn`t this legally mean he wasn`t killed enough?

[Plane]

What is the precident?


Saddam killed enough people to spend the rest of his life in trials.


If I were one of his surviving victims I might forgo his trial, on the crime that injured me, for the sake of his sooner being punished for another crime that would make his further trial moot.


How often does this sort of thing come up?