Witness in Saddam Hussein Case Dies

By SAMEER N. YACOUB, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 16 minutes ago

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A key witness against
Saddam Hussein has died of cancer, but his testimony has been recorded on audio and video tape for presentation in the trial scheduled to begin next week, the main prosecutor said Friday.

Wadah Ismael Al-Sheik died on Oct. 27, four days after talking to court officials, said Jafaar al-Mousawi, the main prosecutor. He said the testimony at a U.S. detention center was "on the side of the victims."

Al-Sheik, was a senior Iraqi intelligence officer at the time of the Dujail massacre in 1982 that Saddam and seven other co-defendants are charged with. The trial is set to resume on Monday.

If convicted, the Saddam and the others could face the death penalty for their role in the killing of 148 people from the mainly Shiite town of Dujail north of Baghdad after a failed attempt on Saddam's life.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051125/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq

Hmmmmm.

kill them, when is half of the rest of the world's leaders going on trial? This is all they could come up with? I guess it was the only thing Sadam did that didn't involve Reagan and Bush 1

acquitted because he had a fair trial?

I mean, this isn't exactly the Hague War Criminal Trial Forum.

Or Canadian, British or any other court that hearkens back to English common law? It doesn't really give the accused much of a chance to face his accuser.

I suspect it would be admissible, but not be enough for a conviction all on its own.

The real tragedy is that the world will never know what really happened because of the nature of the joke of a trial. Lawyers being killed, witnesses dying, the U.S. running the whole charade. Saddam would be better off just calling the whole thing a joke and going on a hunger strike.