Rights groups say Saddam trial was flawed

LONDON, Nov 5 (Reuters) The trial that sentenced Saddam Hussein to hang was deeply flawed and may fail to persuade Iraqis that justice has been done, rights groups and legal experts said today.

Saddam and two other men were handed the death penalty for their roles in the deaths of more than 140 Shi'ites from the farming village of Dujail, killed after a failed attempt to assassinate the deposed Iraqi leader in 1982.

Official responses were predictable.

The embassy of the United States -- which deposed Saddam, set up the court, funded it and provided its security -- called the verdict a landmark for a sovereign Iraq. Iraq's government said Saddam had got what he deserved.

Saddam's lawyers called the trial a ''mockery of justice''.

But rights groups said the year-long trial -- during the course of which three defence lawyers were murdered and the original judge quit, citing political interference -- did not meet the standards that would allow it to settle the question.

''The court was not impartial. There were not adequate steps taken to protect the security of defence lawyers and witnesses,'' said Malcolm Smart, head of West Asia and North Africa Programme for Amnesty International.

''Every individual has a right to a fair trial, even people accused of crimes of the magnitude that Saddam Hussein was accused of, and this has not been a fair trial.'' US officials say the trial met Iraqi legal standards, and that defence lawyers who were killed had been offered better security, but turned it down.

The Dujail case was the first against Saddam, but far from the biggest. One concern for those hoping that the trials would promote reconciliation has been that a death sentence in this first case could prevent others from being heard.

The second case is already under way, with Saddam accused of genocide for killing 180,000 Kurds in the 1980s. That trial was criticised by rights groups after the government sacked its chief judge for saying Saddam was ''not a dictator''.

The New York-based International Centre for Transitional Justice, which has monitored the Dujail trial closely with staff in Baghdad, said appeals judges should order a re-trial to fix its flaws.

''It's not a sham trial by any means. But there were lots of errors and mistakes along the way, as they were learning,'' said Hanny Megally, the ICTJ's expert on justice in the West Asia.

''And in all fairness, unless they put those right, it would be impossible to meet the standards of fairness.'' Miranda Sissons, head of the ICTJ's Iraq programme, said the flaws in the first trial included ''repeated political interference, gaps in evidence and important fair trial violations''.

Reuters SP RN1840