Given the turmoil this trial has already seen, a change of venue is worth a consideration.
Iraq’s president stepped into the debate over the future of the troubled court trying Saddam Hussein on Tuesday, suggesting it be moved from Baghdad to his own Kurdish home region to improve security.
Jalal Talabani’s proposal came as a split emerged inside the court over how to choose a successor to Kurdish judge Rizgar Amin; he resigned in protest at political pressure, buffeting a trial already rocked by the killings of two defense lawyers.
“If there are judges here who will feel in danger in future, we are ready to take them to Kurdistan and they would be safe there and guarded very well,” Talabani told Reuters in Baghdad.
Ah, but it’s not that easy. The Kurds hate Saddam, and it’s unlikely that an unbiased court could be constructed in Kurdistan.
Meanwhile, efforts to get chief judge Amin to reconsider his plans to resign are falling on deaf ears.
Hopefully things will turn around soon and everyone will get back to the primary objective – serving justice upon that murderer Saddam Hussein and his thug cohorts.