Malcom Lagauche
The headlines on Al-Jazeera’s website on March 9, 2007 were unexpected and powerful: "Saddam Judge Flees Iraq." Raouf Abdel-Rhaman, the judge who sentenced Saddam Hussein, as well as Barzan al-Tikriti and Awad al-Bandar, to death, has left Iraq and has applied for political asylum in Great Britain. Before I get to the absurdity of this cowardly act, let’s look at the trial over which Abdel-Rahman presided.The first trial of Saddam was for signing death warrants of 148 people in Dujail.. They had a three-year comprehensive trial and were found guilty of treason and attempted assassination. At the time, the Iran-Iraq War was raging and those who tried to kill Saddam were Iraqis fighting on the side of Iran. Many fled Iraq and stayed in Iran until the aftermath of the illegal March 2003 invasion of Iraq by the U.S. More...
