War crimes trials against the top figures in Saddam Hussein’s ousted regime will begin next week, interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi said Tuesday. He didn’t say whether the former dictator would be among them.Many of Iraq’s former Baath Party members have been in jail for more than a year, and few have been able to meet with counsel. Saddam’s Jordan-based lawyers say they have not seen the former dictator, arrested a year ago Monday, and said holding trials so soon would be illegal. “The Iraqi court will be in violation of the basic rights of the defendants, which is to have access to legal counsel while being interrogated and indicted,” Ziad al-Khasawneh said. Officials had given conflicting accounts about when the trials before the Iraqi Special Tribunal would begin. They have also suggested that Saddam would not be tried first. Full Story
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