Iraqi Council forms a reconciliation committee; prepares to try Saddam
Iraq, Politics, 12/17/2003

News reports in Iraq said that the Interim Governing Council decided to form a committee under the name of "facts finding and national reconciliation" that aims at what it called closing the file of hatred created because of 35 years under the rule of the Baath party.

Sources of the council stressed following its first meeting following the capture of the toppled Iraqi President Saddam Hussein that the committee will bring together all strata of the Iraqi people. The formation of the committee comes in the context of war crimes court establishment in Iraq. Members in the governing council said that the court will sue what it described as criminals.

The report explained that the committee aims at bridging the gap created among politicians after the fall of the former regime. The sources said that any pardoning or alleviation of sanctions will not be for those whose names are stated in the list of 55- former senior Iraqi officials, and Saddam Hussein is on top of them.

The spokesman for the national conference Intiqad Qanbar said that the toppled President Saddam Hussein will be subjected to a just trial, signifying that " new Iraq will try its leaders over their actions." Qanbar said in statements to the BBC said that the politicians and the Iraqi people want this trial to be the first of its kind in the Middle East. He explained that former members of the Baath party will not be sued unless they had committed crimes.

For his part, Judge Dara Nour Eddine, the judge of the Iraqi court which was formed to try leaders of the former regime, said that full opportunity will be given to Saddam Hussein to defend himself. He added that sentencing Saddam to death depends on the volume of the crime he had committed, and the consent of the Governing Council to implement this penalty.

He explained that Saddam has the right to assign a defense lawyer, and if he can not do so, the court will appoint a lawyer for him.

However, hundreds supporters for the Higher Council For the Islamic Revolution in Iraq demanded the trial of Saddam Hussein in open, at the hand of the Iraqi themselves. In demonstrations that took in several streets in Baghdad, they expressed happiness over the detention of Saddam Hussein, and congratulated all sects of the Iraqi people on this occasion which they described as great. The demonstrators also called on the American forces to return the authority to the Iraqis as soon as possible.

Previous Stories:
  Mubarak blames Iraqi intransigence for current conditions   (12/16/2003)
  Tehran prepares international complaint against Saddam Hussein   (12/16/2003)
  Baath party announces capture of its secretary general by biological effects   (12/16/2003)
  Amnesty International for a just trial for Saddam Hussein   (12/16/2003)

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