UN calls for a just trial for Saddam Hussein

The UNHCR new chairperson Luis Arbor stressed the need that the toppled Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has to get a fair trial.

In her first statement since she assumed her new post, she said " I see that it is inappropriate to maintain a prior assessment, in order to see how this matter will proceed completely."

The UNHCR official called on the international community to follow up the procedures of the trial closely in order "to ensure that this process will honor all human rights criterion." A special Iraqi court on Thursday held a prodecural session in which it made accusations against Saddam Hussein and 11 of his aides of committing crimes against humanity and mass extermination.

The Amnesty International and other organizations defending human rights doubted whether the Iraqi judicial system has an experience in dealing with such complex issues.