The Trial
of Saddam Hussain
A brief statement of aims:
Before attending to the main points identified in the book I need to stress that I have been in the privileged position of having been involved directly with the defence team through my legal advise to Saddam Hussain’s daughter who herself took control of the defence team.
· The aim of the book is to present a clear analysis with emphasise on illegality of the trial of Saddam Hussain briefly covering the background to the invasion, the setting up of the tribunal and ending with analysis of the trial procedures.
· The book is necessary because it is the first time since the UN was created that a sovereign state has been invaded, the system changed and its head of state has been put on trial by an occupying power. It is very important to assess the dangers of such a precedent.
· I am not aware of any other book on the market attending to that angle of the trial. Furthermore, I believe that simply judging by the interest in the US and the UK there is a real public interest which would make it marketable if not highly demanded.
Here is a short outline of the intended contents of the book.
1. An
Introduction Ba’ath Ideology and Rule in Iraq
In this chapter a short but accurate presentation will be attempted for the history and development of the Ba’ath in Iraq. This is necessary in order to pus Saddam Hussain in the right historical context. It will also go to dispel many of the myths perpetrated by the ill-informed media in the West about Arab nationalism in general and the Ba’ath in particular.
2. Pre-
Invasion
The first part of the book addresses the background that led to the trial. No understanding of the legality or otherwise may be achieved without understanding the legality of the war. Although this topic in itself can cover a book the analysis of the trial would be incomplete without introducing the reader to the general principles under customary international law of invasion, occupation, responsibility of the occupying power, end of occupation, etc.
An important point that is addressed in this chapter is the public misconception, heightened by ill-informed media, that circled around the need of second SC resolution before the invasion of Iraq. The muddle here is that the SC has no jurisdiction to declare wars. It will be legally argued that the SC has no power to declare war and with or without such a resolution the war would still be illegal. The SC is not above the law that created it, i.e. the UN Charter, as some would like us to believe.
3. The
Invasion
One of the most relevant legal documents on which the invasion and occupation of Iraq is based is the letter of the US and the UK to the SC. This is hardly mentioned. However, it forms the legal foundation of the occupation and the setting up of the trial. This chapter analyses the letter and the SC which was based on it and granted the US and the UK the authority to rule Iraq within specific principles of international law.
4. The
Occupation
This chapter sets out to argue that despite the clear obligations under customary international law and SC resolution 1483, the CPA, headed by Bremer for the US and Greenstock for the UK, went ahead and changed Iraq’s judicial, economic, social and political structures. The contemptuous attitude of the CPA towards international law is manifested in the 100 orders made by it during the first year of its administration of Iraq. The preamble of most of these orders refers to the authority bestowed on the CPA by SC resolution. Careful examination of these resolutions would show that in fact they denied the CPA that authority.
It would be forcefully argued here that in the absence of any SC resolution the principles of customary international law would prevail. Furthermore, when interpreting SC resolutions the principles of customary international law take precedence because the SC could not breach them.
5. The
Creation of the Iraqi Special Tribunal (IST)
On 10 December 2003 Bremer promulgated Order 48 setting up the IST. The Act setting up the tribunal is a unique unprecedented piece of legislation that requires careful attention. The preamble states that it was made in accordance with the SC authority. It will be shown that it was made contrary to SC resolution. There are more holes in the legislation than there is material. As this Order is the legislation on which the trial and conviction of Saddam Hussain was based its scrutiny is at the heart of this book.
This chapter will expose all the flaws of the IST and concludes that it was unlawful and what followed from an unlawful process ought to be unlawful
6. The Court
and its Statute
This chapter will argue that the court was not set up in accordance with Iraq law and because it was not set up under international law, then it could not legally be ascribed as a court. The court was created by an occupying power with judges appointed and trained by that occupier. These appointed judges were not identified and sat incognito contrary to basic principles of justice. In fact it would even be argued that some of them may not even have had any judicial experience. The evidence presented in this chapter will go to establish this contention. The statute of the court will be analysed in detail to show that even if the tribunal was legal, then its statute was flawed.
7 The Trial
These chapters will follow the process of the trial and show that the trial failed on the law of evidence, on fairness, on impartiality, on political bias etc. The intimidation of defence lawyers, the total insecurity in Iraq that prevented defence witnesses to come forward, all would show that the trial, even if the court had jurisdiction, could not have been held within the meaning of a fairness and justice.
The main events of submitting evidence and procedure will be covered. An analysis of the force pf evidence and the link between Saddam Hussain and the sequence of responsibility would be carefully scrutinized.
8. Sentence,
Appeal and Hanging
The trial could not be more bizarre than to have a criminal trial of such importance ending up with sentence before judgment was pronounced. The sentence will be analysed and the appeal.
More emphasis will be placed on the fact that Saddam Hussain was handed over to be hanged despite the fact that the full constitutional requirement of ratification by the Presidential Council was not fulfilled. A hanging without legal authority is murder. Under Common law, aiding and abetting murder is equivalent to the act of the principal.
9. Conclusion
The previous argument would have shown that the trial failed on legal terms and could have only had a meaning as a political trial to for a political phase in a specific period of time to justify the invasion and occupation of Iraq, i.e. it had little to do with justice or the law.
- The book is expected to be between 80,000 - 100,000 words in text or nearly 150-200 pages. The appendices which include the relevant statute of the IST and the SC resolutions would add another 50 pages to the text.
I expect the final draft to be ready by end of May 2007 at the latest.
Identify as accurately as possible the intended market for your book, listing:
· I believe that the book will be read by ordinary people as much as by legal professionals. Many of the legal issues of international law have never been tested before and this will open a big debate about the most important imperialist claim of the right of intervention on human rights ground.
· The market would be mainly in North America, the UK, Australia and South Africa. There may be an interest among other European countries for translations into some of these languages.
Briefly review the competition:
· I do not know of a competitive book on this subject to compare it with.