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Tehran Times Political Desk

September 8, 2005

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Saddam Hussein in July.

On Monday, the head of Iran’s judiciary, Mahmud Hashemi Shahrudi, expressed regret that crimes against humanity committed by Saddam during the Iran-Iraq war and the continuation of such crimes years after the war ended are not among the charges.

The present charges are insignificant and do not include Saddam’s criminal acts, he said.

[Editor’s Note: The charges include ones relating to the chemical attack on the Kurdish village of Halabja in 1988, the invasion of Kuwait in 1990 and the repression of Shias in 1991. They also cover the 1982 killings in the Shia village of Dujail, which followed an assassination attempt on the former leader].

Shahrudi urged Iraqi prosecutors to prepare a more realistic and consistent indictment against Saddam Hussein in order to dispel rumors that the trial is being controlled by the global arrogance (the United States).

The Iranian Judiciary, Shahrudi said, is concerned for the rights of Iranian citizens that were violated during the eight-year War of Sacred Defense, especially in regard to those who lost their loved ones, and the many war veterans that were injured by chemical weapons.

Shahrudi has ordered Iran’s prosecutor general to prepare an indictment against Saddam for his crimes during the Iran-Iraq war and to file it through legal channels.

Meanwhile, chief of the Iranian Supreme Court, Ayatollah Hossein Mofid, said this week that the Attorney General’s Office plans to prepare a comprehensive indictment against Saddam, adding that it is ridiculous that Iraq’s eight-year war against Iran was omitted from the Iraqi officials’ indictment of Saddam.

He went on to say that the international community acknowledges the fact that Iraq was the aggressor in the war, so the Islamic Republic has a right to claim reparations.

Iranians in the Trenches. Damage to Iran Was Estimated at about $350 Billion

Mofid said that many Iranians still suffer the effects of the chemical weapons Saddam used and called the use of such weapons an unforgivable crime.

Iranian Attorney General Ayatollah Dorri Najafabadi said this week that it was known from the beginning that the trial process begun by Paul Bremer could not be trusted.

He said that Saddam flouted human rights and violated countless international treaties and conventions during and after the war, adding that as the prosecutor general and on behalf of all Iranian families, the Iranian Attorney General’s Office was determined to prepare a comprehensive indictment against Saddam for his crimes.

“We have committed ourselves to defending the rights of the Iranian nation during Saddam’s trial, but we may fail to achieve a satisfactory result because the United States is behind this trial,” Najafabadi said.

Under international law, Iraq must pay reparations for all damage inflicted on Iran during the eight-year Iraqi imposed war, regardless of whether the current Iraqi government is friendly or neutral, political analyst and university professor Sabah Zanganeh said earlier this week.

Since Saddam’s trial is being conducted within the framework of the new Iraqi Constitution, Iran’s attorney general is responsible for objecting to the list of charges against Saddam on behalf of the entire Iranian nation and its nongovernmental organizations, he added.

Saddam’s trial could pave the way for a strengthening of relations between the two countries, he said.

Iraq’s legal obligation to pay reparations can be pursued through separate legal channels, as the upcoming trial will not investigate the issue of financial damage, he explained, adding that Iranians are eager to see Saddam tried as soon as possible.

International law also dictates that the current Iraqi Government is legally bound to pay reparations to Iran, but political measures could be taken to delay or reduce the payment, he noted.

Punitive measures for crimes, which could be imprisonment or the death penalty, are to be imposed on exclusively on Saddam, but all other legal and financial responsibility is transferred to the current Iraqi government, Zanganeh explained.

Member of Parliament Mohammad Jafar Sadat Musavi of the Majlis [Parliament] Legal Committee said this week that the Islamic Republic of Iran would vigorously focus all of its efforts on defending the inalienable rights of the nation during Saddam’s trial.

Saddam should be held accountable for imposing an eight-year war on Iran, incurring tremendous damage on the Iranian nation, massacring innocent Iranian civilians and using chemical weapons, he said. Iraq owes and must pay reparations, so the new Iraqi Government should make plans to do so, he emphasized.

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