u-baddog
06-12-06, 08:56
American Lawyer on Saddam's Defense Team Criticizes Court, Alleging Witness Intimidation
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- An American lawyer on Saddam Hussein's defense team lashed out at the court Monday, saying it was not giving defenders enough time and was intimidating witnesses.
Curtis Doebbler chided the chief judge for not responding to a series of defense motions, including ones challenging the court's legitimacy and seeking documents. He asked for a break in the proceedings until those issues were resolved.
"We are at a serious disadvantage to the prosecution because of the way we have been treated by the court," Doebbler told chief judge Raouf Abdel-Rahman. "We want to work for justice. But that must start by having a fair trial.
"But under the current circumstances, that doesn't seem possible. We ask that the trial be stopped to allow us adequate time to prepare our defense."
He pointed out that the prosecution took more than five months to present its case, while the court is rushing the defense, which began its arguments in April. Abdel-Rahman has repeatedly demanded the defense present full lists of witnesses.
"Our witnesses have been intimidated by the court and have been assaulted," Doebbler said. "Several lawyers were assaulted as well."
Four defense witnesses were arrested two weeks ago after presenting their testimony, and the defense said some of them were beaten by Iraqi police as U.S. soldiers watched. Abdel-Rahman accused the four of committing perjury.
Saddam and seven former members of his regime are on trial for charges of crimes against humanity in a crackdown against Shiites in the town of Dujail after a 1982 assassination attempt on the former leader. They are accused of torturing women and children and wrongfully killing 148 Shiites sentenced to death for the attack.
Saddam and his co-defendants could be hanged if convicted on the charges.
Doebbler is one of two American lawyers, along with former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, who have joined the defense team, though they have not attended every session. Doebbler currently is a visiting professor at Najah University in the West Bank town of Nablus.
He accused the court of ignoring the defense's requests.
"We have not received one reasoned opinion in response to our enormous written submissions," he said.
The submissions include motions questioning the tribunal's legitimacy, but others are more substantive, seeking documents the defense says are key. The defense team has asked the court for the entire records of the 1984 trial in Saddam's Revolutionary Court that sentenced the 148 Shiites to death.
That trial is key to the case, since prosecutors have claimed it was a show trial in which the Shiites had no chance to defend themselves. Saddam's lawyers have contended it was a fair legal proceeding and a justified response to the shooting attack on Saddam.
The chief judge of the Revolutionary Court, Awad al-Bandar, is among the seven co-defendants in the Dujail case.
"We've not been able to visit the place where the Dujail events took place," Doebbler said. "I have asked to visit the place for a year and I haven't received any answer."
The defense has also sought an inquiry into claims by three of its witnesses that some of the 148 Shiites supposedly killed in the crackdown are still alive. Abdel-Rahman ordered an investigation, but there is no sign that one has begun, and the three witnesses were among those arrested on perjury charges.
The defense argues that if some of the 148 are still alive, it casts doubt on the entire prosecution case. It has demanded that all the prosecution's documents be reviewed for authenticity.
The perceived fairness of the trial is a crucial issue, since U.S. and Iraqi officials have hoped that showing justice toward Saddam will help heal the deep Shiite-Sunni divisions that have exploded since his regime's fall.
Here is Curtis Doebbler web site with his self proclaimed tilte of International Human Rights Lawyer.
http://dcregistry.com/homepages/curtis.html
The Iraqi Special Tribunal for Saddam Hussein is incompetent, partial, anything but independent, and as illegal as the US-led war on Iraq, writes Curtis Doebbler
He moved to Sudan in 1997 with his partner, an Italian woman and United Nations employee who was posted there. He taught law at Khartoum University. Next semester, he will teach at An-Najah National University in the West Bank city of Nablus.
In 2001, an intermediary approached and asked him to help the Taliban. Doebbler thought there was a legal avenue that might avert an American war: an obscure international treaty that allows a state to forcibly extradite suspects in crimes against civilian aircraft.
While American bombs rained on Afghanistan, he traveled to Kandahar, the Taliban's spiritual base. He saw men shooting up into the clouds, aiming for planes they could hear but not see.
He says that much of his work has been unpaid - including the Hussein case. He makes most of his income teaching and writing electronic legal course books.
He says his decision to represent Hussein wasn't easy. An intermediary - he won't say who - approached him shortly after the former Iraqi leader was caught in an underground room near Tikrit, Iraq, last December. Doebbler thought it over. He talked with his other clients.
He agreed, in part, because he says he feels "some obligation to represent people who have been injured by my government's illegal action."
Here he is helping those in Gitmo
http://www.crimesofwar.org/expert/pow-doebbler.html
I cant find a single instant that this man isnt somehow disparaging the United States.
He needs to be Stripped of his citizenship.
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- An American lawyer on Saddam Hussein's defense team lashed out at the court Monday, saying it was not giving defenders enough time and was intimidating witnesses.
Curtis Doebbler chided the chief judge for not responding to a series of defense motions, including ones challenging the court's legitimacy and seeking documents. He asked for a break in the proceedings until those issues were resolved.
"We are at a serious disadvantage to the prosecution because of the way we have been treated by the court," Doebbler told chief judge Raouf Abdel-Rahman. "We want to work for justice. But that must start by having a fair trial.
"But under the current circumstances, that doesn't seem possible. We ask that the trial be stopped to allow us adequate time to prepare our defense."
He pointed out that the prosecution took more than five months to present its case, while the court is rushing the defense, which began its arguments in April. Abdel-Rahman has repeatedly demanded the defense present full lists of witnesses.
"Our witnesses have been intimidated by the court and have been assaulted," Doebbler said. "Several lawyers were assaulted as well."
Four defense witnesses were arrested two weeks ago after presenting their testimony, and the defense said some of them were beaten by Iraqi police as U.S. soldiers watched. Abdel-Rahman accused the four of committing perjury.
Saddam and seven former members of his regime are on trial for charges of crimes against humanity in a crackdown against Shiites in the town of Dujail after a 1982 assassination attempt on the former leader. They are accused of torturing women and children and wrongfully killing 148 Shiites sentenced to death for the attack.
Saddam and his co-defendants could be hanged if convicted on the charges.
Doebbler is one of two American lawyers, along with former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, who have joined the defense team, though they have not attended every session. Doebbler currently is a visiting professor at Najah University in the West Bank town of Nablus.
He accused the court of ignoring the defense's requests.
"We have not received one reasoned opinion in response to our enormous written submissions," he said.
The submissions include motions questioning the tribunal's legitimacy, but others are more substantive, seeking documents the defense says are key. The defense team has asked the court for the entire records of the 1984 trial in Saddam's Revolutionary Court that sentenced the 148 Shiites to death.
That trial is key to the case, since prosecutors have claimed it was a show trial in which the Shiites had no chance to defend themselves. Saddam's lawyers have contended it was a fair legal proceeding and a justified response to the shooting attack on Saddam.
The chief judge of the Revolutionary Court, Awad al-Bandar, is among the seven co-defendants in the Dujail case.
"We've not been able to visit the place where the Dujail events took place," Doebbler said. "I have asked to visit the place for a year and I haven't received any answer."
The defense has also sought an inquiry into claims by three of its witnesses that some of the 148 Shiites supposedly killed in the crackdown are still alive. Abdel-Rahman ordered an investigation, but there is no sign that one has begun, and the three witnesses were among those arrested on perjury charges.
The defense argues that if some of the 148 are still alive, it casts doubt on the entire prosecution case. It has demanded that all the prosecution's documents be reviewed for authenticity.
The perceived fairness of the trial is a crucial issue, since U.S. and Iraqi officials have hoped that showing justice toward Saddam will help heal the deep Shiite-Sunni divisions that have exploded since his regime's fall.
Here is Curtis Doebbler web site with his self proclaimed tilte of International Human Rights Lawyer.
http://dcregistry.com/homepages/curtis.html
The Iraqi Special Tribunal for Saddam Hussein is incompetent, partial, anything but independent, and as illegal as the US-led war on Iraq, writes Curtis Doebbler
He moved to Sudan in 1997 with his partner, an Italian woman and United Nations employee who was posted there. He taught law at Khartoum University. Next semester, he will teach at An-Najah National University in the West Bank city of Nablus.
In 2001, an intermediary approached and asked him to help the Taliban. Doebbler thought there was a legal avenue that might avert an American war: an obscure international treaty that allows a state to forcibly extradite suspects in crimes against civilian aircraft.
While American bombs rained on Afghanistan, he traveled to Kandahar, the Taliban's spiritual base. He saw men shooting up into the clouds, aiming for planes they could hear but not see.
He says that much of his work has been unpaid - including the Hussein case. He makes most of his income teaching and writing electronic legal course books.
He says his decision to represent Hussein wasn't easy. An intermediary - he won't say who - approached him shortly after the former Iraqi leader was caught in an underground room near Tikrit, Iraq, last December. Doebbler thought it over. He talked with his other clients.
He agreed, in part, because he says he feels "some obligation to represent people who have been injured by my government's illegal action."
Here he is helping those in Gitmo
http://www.crimesofwar.org/expert/pow-doebbler.html
I cant find a single instant that this man isnt somehow disparaging the United States.
He needs to be Stripped of his citizenship.