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Iraq
Lawyers demand disqualification of Saddam judge
2006-02-25
Lawyers for Saddam Hussein on Thursday demanded the disqualification of a judge presiding over the former Iraqi leaderÂ’s trial, saying he was biased and prejudiced. Ramsey Clark, the former US attorney general who is helping defend Saddam, handed out an English-language version of a motion against Judge Rauf Abdel Rahman at a news conference in Washington DC.

The motion, which Clark said was submitted to the court on Wednesday, claims the judge “is not impartial and has a manifested bias against defendant” and had “repeatedly violated standards of fair trial, human rights and basic due process in the courtroom.” The document states that under international legal standards, everyone has a right to trial by an impartial judge who harbors no preconceptions about the mater before them. It claims Abdel Rahman is biased because he opposed Saddam Hussein’s government and becaue he is a native of the Iraqi Kurdish village of Halabja, the target of a 1988 chemical attack by Iraqi warplanes.
Posted by:Fred

#2  Time to SOJ the judge is over. So sorry.
Posted by: Mark E.   2006-02-25 16:18  

#1  So he would be disqualified to judge THAT incident, not this one, which was committed against the Kurds.

It is the duty of the judge to stop grandstanding and outbursts calculated to disrupt the proceedings. The failure of the lawyers to control their clients leads me to believe that their (the lawyers) behavior is worthy of censure in itself.
Posted by: Ptah   2006-02-25 12:33  

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