The International Association of Democratic Lawyers is a non-governmental organization of jurists with national affiliates on all continents.
The International Association of Democratic Lawyers (IADL) unequivocally condemns the trial, verdict and execution of Saddam Hussein as victor’s justice, a travesty of international justice and an affront to the rule of law.
1. The execution of Saddam Hussein is a tragic testament of President Bush’s and the U.S.-led Coalition’s War on the Rule of Law.
2. The IADL re-iterates its view that Saddam Hussein and his co-defendants did not, and could not, receive a fair trial in Iraq under the Occupation.
As the IADL statement on Saddam Hussein’s trial and verdict, issued at New Delhi on 27 November 2006 points out, the Iraqi High Tribunal (IHT) is an illegitimate judicial institution, established by the Coalition Provisional Authority. Under the Fourth Geneva Convention, the Occupying Power may not dissolve the judicial bodies of a country, and replace them with its own judicial bodies.
3. The violations of Saddam Hussein’s right to a fair trial were egregious.
Saddam Hussein never received a “fair and public hearing by a competent, independent and impartial tribunal established by law” (ICCPR, Art. 14.1). His rights to a fair trial, under Article 14, were decimated, as detailed in the abovenoted IADL statement. In addition, his rights as a Prisoner of War to be tried by an independent and impartial court, with procedures that ensure the rights of the accused and the mean of defence (Third Geneva Convention, Articles 84 and 105) were flagrantly violated.
The appeals process was a farce. It is obvious that the Appeal Court did not act impartially or independently. Its hasty affirmance of the judgment indicates that it never had any intention of reviewing the gross violations of fair trial, or any other issues raised by the defence.
4. Without a fair trial, there can be no fair verdict.
IADL firmly rejects the view that Saddam Hussein’s verdict was a fair, but flawed, judicial decision. On the contrary, the verdict and sentence confirm that there is no rule of law under the U.S.-led Occupation, and that victor’s justice is no justice.
5. It was a well-known fact in the international community that Saddam Hussein could not receive a fair trial under the IHT. The Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers, Mr. Leandro Despouy, strongly objected to the IHT, and reported that it violated the right to be tried by an impartial tribunal. The Human Rights Committee’s Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, on 28 November 2006, re-iterated its Final Opinion that Saddam Hussein was arbitrarily deprived on his liberty, in violation of ICCPR, Article 14, an international treaty binding on both Iraq and the United States.
6. But once again, President Bush opposed the international community, and declared on CNN that “Saddam Hussein received a fair trial.” This is a travesty of truth.
If President Bush and the other Coalition leaders were in the dock- for the crime of aggression, war crimes and crimes against humanity in Iraq – in a trial which replicated Saddam Hussein’s, they would be the first to vociferously denounce the violations of international standards for a fair trial. In this context IADL recalls the following passage from the Opening Statement of Justice Robert H. Jackson, Chief of Counsel for the United States, before the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg,1945:
“We must never forget that the record on which we judge these defendants today is the record on which history will judge us tomorrow. To pass these defendants a poisoned chalice is to put it our own lips as well. We must summon such detachment and intellectual integrity to our task that this Trial will commend itself to posterity as fulfilling humanity’s aspirations to do justice.”
IADL joins the international community in opposing the execution of Saddam Hussein, and re-affirms that the immediate withdrawal of the U.S.-led troops and an end to the occupation are the prerequisites for the restoration of the rule of law in a sovereign Iraq.
Issued on January 6, 2006 at New Delhi.
Jitendra Sharma
President
Ms. Jeanne Mirer
Secretary General
