Tight security on Saddam’s verdict day: Curfew in three provinces
BAGHDAD, Nov 4: Baghdad and two other Iraqi provinces will be under curfew on Sunday to prevent violence on the day of the verdict in Saddam Hussein’s first trial, a top aide of premier Nuri al-Maliki said.
“We have to ensure the safety of Iraqi people from loyalists of Saddam as Sunday is a historic day. So we have ordered an indefinite curfew starting 6:00 am (0300 GMT) tomorrow,” Bassam Ridha, adviser to Mr Maliki said.
The curfew will be imposed in Baghdad and two other provinces of Diyala and Salaheddin. “It will be a total curfew... for the pedestrians as well as vehicles,” he said.
State television Al-Iraqiya also reported that the Baghdad airport was also to be closed on Sunday.
As additional security measures, Iraq has already cancelled all military leave and put its armed forces on alert as a precaution to prevent any violence before or after Sunday’s ruling by the Iraqi High Tribunal in Saddam’s trial for crimes against humanity.
Saddam and seven of his former regime officials are charged with ordering the killing of 148 Shiites in the early 1980s in the village of Dujail, where the deposed president escaped an assassination bid in 1982.
It is feared that a verdict in the trial, in which Saddam faces a possible death penalty, could trigger widespread violence in Iraq between remaining supporters of the former president and his many enemies.
Iraq’s Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said on Saturday he hoped Saddam Hussein gets “what he deserves” when judgment is delivered in his trial for crimes against humanity and called for calm amid fears of a violent backlash.
If convicted, Saddam could be sentenced to hang.
Saddam’s chief lawyer Khalil al-Dulaimi said Saddam believed the verdict was timed to boost President George W. Bush before US mid-term elections on Nov 7, and urged a delay.
Former US attorney general Ramsey Clark, who leads an international group of lawyers involved in the defence, said Saddam would almost certainly receive the death sentence but it would be “victors’ justice”.
“It will create violence maybe for generations to come,” he said, adding that the trial was politically influenced.
“It’s an unfair trial in more ways than you can count. Where have we seen a trial take place in the midst of such uncontrollable violence?,” he said.
Mr Maliki has said Saddam’s execution cannot come soon enough, fuelling charges of political interference in the US-backed independent tribunal.
While the eyes of the world may be turned to the trial, many Iraqis are preoccupied with relentless sectarian violence and insurgent attacks killing hundreds every week.
“Every day my heart is tortured when one of my six sons is late, fearing he might be kidnapped or hurt,” said Um Adnan, a 68-year-old housewife. “Don’t ask me about Saddam, ask me about seeing peace prevail in Iraq and my sons stay alive.
Meanwhile, for the second time this week, the Bush administration sent in a top official to huddle with the Iraqi prime minister.
Mr Maliki’s demand for a speedier transfer of power to his military was believed to have been among the issues discussed with US National Intelligence Director John Negroponte, who met the Iraqi leader in the heavily fortified Green Zone.
Mr Negroponte’s visited just four days after National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley paid an unannounced visit to Baghdad and was heard to say he had come “to reinforce some of the things you have heard from our president.”—Agencies
