- Saddam Hussein could face the death penalty if found
guilty by a war crimes tribunal, its head has told the BBC.
-
- Salem Chalabi said Iraqi law permitted execution for
murderers, but a current coalition-imposed moratorium on capital punishment
would have to be lifted.
-
- Mr Chalabi told the BBC's Breakfast with Frost programme
that hundreds of Iraqis had been flocking to submit evidence against their
former rulers.
-
- But he said the trials were unlikely to get under way
for at least one year.
-
- Negotiations over Saddam
-
- Mr Chalabi - nephew of Ahmed Chalabi, the once influential
but now largely discredited head of the Iraqi National Congress - faces
the challenging task of trying to organise the trials of former Iraqi leaders
suspected of war crimes amid violent resistance to the new order.
-
- Iraq's tarnished judicial system also requires major
reform.
-
- Mr Chalabi, director of Iraq's war crimes tribunal, said
"intensive negotiations" were taking place with coalition authorities
over the handling of Saddam Hussein.
-
- He said he hoped the ousted president could be placed
in Iraqi custody "relatively soon" after the 30 June transition
of power - along with other "high-value targets" in coalition
custody.
-
- Mr Chalabi said Iraqi law allowed the imposition of a
death sentence on those convicted of murder or rape.
-
- However, Mr Chalabi said, the death penalty had been
suspended in Iraq by interim administrator Paul Bremer and the suspension
would remain unless the new Iraqi government acts "affirmatively"
to remove it.
-
- The imposition of a death sentence would be highly contentious.
Some co-sponsors of the war in Iraq, such as the UK, strongly oppose the
use of capital punishment.
-
- Tide of evidence
-
- Mr Chalabi was forced to conceal his appearance during
the interview for his own protection, and he conceded that there were dangers
facing "everybody involved in trying to build a democratic Iraq".
-
- But Mr Chalabi said the apparent risks of being seen
to collaborate with the new authorities had not appeared to deter Iraqis
from rushing to file evidence against their former rulers.
-
- "We have opened one regional office to take information
from witnesses and there are literally hundreds, if not thousands [of people]
that come in on a regular basis trying to give information."
-
- He said the opening of additional regional offices had
been postponed because of the tribunal's concerns about the safety of the
witnesses, and a 30-strong team dedicated to setting up a witness protection
programme.
-
- Mr Chalabi sounded cautiously upbeat about the progress
his team is making in preparing the ground for war trials.
-
- 'Decent' system
-
- Iraq's judicial system was set up in the 1920s by the
British, he said, and is actually "pretty decent, although it was
played around with by the previous regime".
-
- He said a new independent council of judges had been
established and some judges had been sent to the international court at
the Hague for training.
-
- But Mr Chalabi cautioned that there was a long road ahead.
-
- Investigations would only begin in earnest after arrest
warrants for suspects were issued after the handover, he said - and then
it would probably be "a year or two" before the trials could
begin.
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- © BBC MMIV http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3823109.stm
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