Procedural wrangling yesterday again delayed the resumption of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein's trial, amid increasing enmity between the no-nonsense new judge and an indignant defense team.
Judge Rauf Rasheed Abdel Rahman made his mark in the first session of the trial under his control on Sunday, forcing the former Iraqi president out of the court and ordering guards to eject his half-brother Barzan al-Tikriti.
Neither a clearly irate Saddam, his defense team, nor any of the high profile defendants were expected to attend yesterday's hearing amid continued questioning of the credibility of the tribunal.
But the opening of the trial was delayed to allow time to sort out procedural issues, with the judge declaring that the first session would in any case take place behind closed doors.
Saddam lawyer Khalil Dulaimi, in a statement published hours before the trial was due to resume, laid out 11 conditions for the defense team to end their boycott.
Among those demands, were the sacking of the judge and the switching of the trial "to a country which can offer security."
The defense team declared that judge Abdel Rahman "be removed and cease to have anything to do with the accused because he shows them great hostility."
The trial had turned into a virtual battle between the defendants, their lawyers and Abdel Rahman, with the former demanding sacking of the judge and also relocation of the court out of Iraq, while the judge wants an apology.
Saddam walked out, followed by two other high-profile defendants, former vice president Taha Yassin Ramadan and the head of the revolutionary court, Awad Bandar.
The defense said the judge had contacted the defense team and asked them for an apology following which he would allow them to re-enter the court.
The judge also reportedly suggested a meeting with the defense team under the auspices of the Iraqi bar association to formalize procedural issues for future hearings.
The trial has already come under attack from human-rights activists who have cast doubts over its fairness after the previous presiding judge Rizkar Mohammed Amin quit last month.
Several members of parliament and government officials had publicly criticized Amin for what they viewed as lenient treatment of Saddam and his seven co-defendants, on trial for the killing of 148 inhabitants of the Shiite village of Dujail in 1982.
If proved guilty the accused face execution.
"The demand for presiding judge Rizkar Amin's dismissal, which contributed to his resignation, was nothing less than an attack on judicial independence," said Richard Dicker, director of the International Justice Program at Human Rights Watch, in a statement last week.
Also the appointment of Abdel Rahman, a magistrate from outside the chamber, is believed to have irked other judges.
Abdel Rahman, 64, is the vice president of the criminal court in the northern town of Arbil and helped found the human-rights organization of the Kurdish autonomous region in 1991.
He was twice arrested by the Iraqi government and at one point was tortured so badly he was partly paralyzed.
Abdel Rahman was born in Halabja, the Kurdish town bombed by Saddam's forces with chemical weapons in 1988 -- another of the events for which Saddam could be tried later.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese