What do you mean, an 'iraqi' court? What's the difference? The iraqis are setting up a government, including a judicial system, in which Saddam will be tried by the people he ruled over, if you will, his peers. The US isn't trying him, it came as a suprise to the US that trials will begin in Jan.
Quote:
BAGHDAD, Iraq — In a surprise announcement yesterday, Iraq's interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi promised that former officials in Saddam Hussein's regime will go on trial next week, before elections scheduled for January.
"I can now tell you clearly and precisely that, God willing, next week the trials of the symbols of the former regime will start, one by one, so that justice can take its path in Iraq," Allawi told members of Iraq's National Council, an advisory body, in a live televised address.
Allawi did not name those who would go on trial or say whether Saddam would be among the first Baath party leaders to be called to account for crimes committed by the former regime. But other government officials have said recently that Saddam will not go on trial before the election scheduled for Jan. 30.
Allawi's announcement seemed to catch U.S. and Iraqi government officials off guard.
On Monday, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher told reporters he did not expect the trials of officials in Saddam's regime to start until at least 2005, and Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said in Rome that there was no "specific date" for the trials.
Saddam and 11 of his top lieutenants are expected to be tried by a special tribunal on charges including genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, though no formal charges have been filed.
|
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/tex...iraqdig15.html