Every dog has his day

Guardian:19.10.05
"...Today's trial will start with 19 charges related to the killing of 143 Shia men from the village of Dujail, 35 miles north of Baghdad, after an assassination attempt against Saddam in 1982. The former president faces another 11 trials over the gassing of Kurds in Halabja in the late 1980s, the suppression of a Shia uprising in 1991 and other bloody chapters of his 23-year rule which have yielded 300 mass graves and 40 tonnes of documents. By the time he was ousted in 2003 more than 300,000 people are thought to have been killed, not counting casualties in wars sparked by his invasion of Iran and Kuwait..."

The law says everyone is entitled to his day in court. Surely - there should exceptions to the case!

And the defense's argument: (Guardian: 19.10.05)
.."Saddam's defence has drafted a 122-point document seeking to dismiss the case on the grounds that it did not have enough time to review the evidence or properly consult with the defendant. The defence will also argue the tribunal is illegitimate because it is a creature of the US occupation and thus outside Iraq's established legal structure. "It is created illegally and denies him basic human rights," a statement said yesterday. Defence lawyers are expected to do all they can to make the hearings appear a fiasco."

Such a waste of everyones time!