Defense Lawyer Ejected from Saddam's Genocide Trial
29 November 2006
The genocide trial of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein once again plunged in chaos Wednesday when the chief judge ejected a defense lawyer from the court and ordered him detained for 24 hours.
The judge, Mohammed Oreibi al-Khalifa, first warned the lawyer, Badie Aref, not to use informal terms like "brother" in addressing the court and its officials. But when the lawyer insisted on using the term he was ejected and detained for "insulting the court."
Meanwhile, a second American forensic expert, Douglas Scott, testified at the trial today, saying bullets and cartridge cases found in exhumed bodies of people indicated they were killed by firing squad.
On Tuesday, another American forensic expert, Clyde Snow, showed pictures of bones and skulls of Iraqi Kurds shot during a military campaign.
The experts were testifying about their 1992 investigation of a mass grave with 27 bodies found in the Kurdish village of Koreme. The prosecution says 180,000 people were killed in the 1988 campaign codenamed Operation Anfal.
Meanwhile, U.N. human rights experts say Saddam's first trial was flawed and the ousted leader's death sentence should not be carried out. The U.N. Human Rights Council's working group on arbitrary detention says Saddam's trial for the 1982 killings of Shi'ite villagers in Dujail fell short of international standards.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP and AP.
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