Baghdad, Asharq Al-Awsat- Hussein al-Sadr, member of the Iraqi National Assembly, has attacked the lawyers of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein saying "These do not act on a legal point but on emotional and certain political points. No Iraqi can acquit Saddam of the mass graves that filled Iraq. This a case that is tangible and there is not any house in Iraq, from north to south, that Saddam did not make it suffer the loss of one or more of its sons or daughters. This issue does not need the genius of this or that lawyer. It is a resolved matter."
Al-Sadr said in a statement to Asharq al-Awsat, "The date for Saddam Hussein”s trial was delayed for too long, probably because they thought for various reasons to have the date after the referendum on the draft constitution on 15 October." He called for an urgent and quick trial for all the symbols of crime against this people, starting with the "spearhead in this regime and ending with the lowest leader in the former regime who covered his hand with the blood of the free and honest sons of our dear Iraqi people." After saying he was expecting the trial to be fair and would not be compared to the trials of Iraq”s men under Saddam, he said, "I am a man of the law before being a jurisprudent. I was blindfolded when I was arrested in 1979 and was asked to use my thumb to stamp a statement that I did not read a single line of it as if I was illiterate who did not know how to write and read."
He went on to say that execution is a Koranic principle and called Al-Qasas and execution, that is killing, is the punishment for someone who deliberately kills without any legal reason and therefore the greater reason it is for someone who filled Iraq with mass graves. He disclosed that he got information from participants who helped interrogate Saddam that there were extreme difficulties in providing the documentary papers and evidence and added: Irrefutable documents and much evidence were collected in the cases that were named and raised, foremost of them the Al-Dajil case, and these will lead to trying Saddam as he deserves. He pointed out that he listened to President Jalal Talabani”s announcement that Saddam has admitted many crimes, including those of the genocide against our Kurdish people in Al-Anfal operations.
Ali al-Adib, the National Assembly member from the Unified Iraqi Coalition list, said, "The National Assembly and the cabinet are eager to speed up Saddam”s trial, especially as it is one of the issues in the Iraqi street. Why the dithering and the long period for interrogating Saddam who is a criminal and known to be a criminal. All the Iraqis were harmed by this regime and the Iraqi situation became catastrophic and tragic as a result of the stupid decisions of this man who called himself the president of Iraq. On this basis, any kind of influence or dithering arouses the fears of the Iraqi citizen and apprehension that there might be a political deal to release Saddam, especially as some media sources have reported the notion that there is an intention to release the former regime”s symbols." Al-Adib added that any trial in the new Iraq would be fair because the judiciary in it is independent and the criminal evidence against Saddam and his regime”s symbols are public and do not need investigation. He said, "A single execution sentence is enough to uproot him from life because his presence and that of elements like him in this society must be uprooted so as not to create such disasters for civil society."
Abbas al-Bayati, from the Unified Coalition Iraqi list, said: "The trial has been delayed for too long and should be held before 20 October. But the legal problem is that the National Assembly passed a special law on this issue and there are pressures from the Iraqi street and the National Assembly to close this file, especially as the crimes have been proved and the investigations and evidence confirm the magnitude of the crimes that were committed and we therefore need only to form the court, bring the defendants to make their statements, and then pass the sentence."
Al-Bayati added, "More than one year and a half have passed since Saddam was captured. The evidence and documents are ready and the Iraqi people are waiting for that day when they see justice taking its course. I believe that the execution penalty is not enough. He executed thousands, created the mass graves, and violated sanctities. Being possibly the harshest sentence, we will accept it and have no qualms about it because the one who kills the innocent and sends young men to the furnaces and death must get his punishment. He thought little of lives, sanctities, and possessions. We hope that no mercy will be shown to the criminals."