Iraqi Justice Minister Abdel Hussein Shandal on Wednesday slammed judges running the trial of Saddam Hussein as being unqualified despite their foreign training.
In remarks coming as the trial of the former dictator and seven co-defendants was resuming in Baghdad, Shandal in a statement to the press described the judges as ”not remarkably qualified, although most of them have been trained abroad”.
Shandal also said Saddam’s judges showed incompetence in failing to deal with ”suspects who violated court procedures in public, some of whom offended the judges and the panel of public prosecution”, an apparent reference to the the courtroom outbursts seen from Saddam and the other defendants in the hearings.
But the head of Saddam’s tribunal, Zarkar Mohamed Amin, brushed away Shandal’s remarks, stressing the credibility of his work.
In his first interview with the media, Amin was quoted in the Wednesday issue of the pan-Arab daily al-Hayat as saying that the way he runs the court sessions is ”judicially legal”, adding that he won’t heed the criticism of some Iraqi politicians and the press.
”I allow Saddam to talk about politics because I am patient and calm,” Amin told al-Hayat. ”Saddam is innocent until proven guilty.”
Amin also told al-Hayat that he doesn’t talk with his family or friends about the trial and urges them not to discuss it. He did not, however, answer a question on whether he felt ”his life is under threat” and whether he felt fright when he was assigned to head the tribunal. — Sapa-DPA