The Farce Continues

It seems that the phrases "well run" and "trial of Saddam Hussein" are oxymorons.

Saddam's trial was meant to resume yesterday. However, rather unsurprisingly, it has been postponed yet again this time until Sunday.

This time the dispute centres on the appointment of a the new presiding judge, who was appointed in a last-minute shake-up

Raid Juhi, a judge and spokesman for the tribunal, said that the trial was being delayed because some witnesses and complainants were out of the country making the pilgrimage to Mecca.

However, his statement is being pooh-poohed by the media; who had waited for over four hours for the trial to start.

Anyone with any nounce can reason that if the delay was really down to the absence of witnesses, then this issue would have been raised earlier.

The real reason for the delay appears to be a disagreement among the judges over the replacement of Rizgar Muhammad Amin, the Kurdish judge who has presided over the trial until now.

Judge Amin was scheduled to be replaced by his deputy, Said al-Hammash. However, Judge Hammash was passed over by the tribunal after a commission, which was charged with removing former high-level members of the Baath Party, accused the judge of having been a Baathist.

Instead, Raouf Rasheed Abdel Rahman, was appointed Monday as the new presiding judge for the trial.

Needless to say, that decision reflected badly upon the perceived independence of the trial. As such the tribunal are now squabbling amogst themselves.

In fact, it seems that the tribunal is beset by the same partisan politics that have been unleashed by the "regime change", and that are currently tearing Iraq apart.