Saddam goes on trial for 1982 massacre
(AP)
Updated: 2005-10-19 19:11

There are also fears of attacks by insurgents — who are thought to include members of Saddam's regime — to disrupt the trial.

The night before the trial — in an apparent jab at the former dictator — a bomb went off in a Baghdad square at a statue of Abu Jaafar al-Mansour, the 8th-century caliph who built Baghdad and to whom Saddam frequently compared himself. The blast toppled the bust off its marble pedestal, but no one was hurt.

The world will be watching Saddam's trial to see whether Iraq's new Shiite and Kurdish leaders can rise above politics and prejudice and give the former dictator a fair hearing. Human rights group have criticized the government for trying to influence the trial and that considerable U.S. logistical and financial aid to the tribunal could lend credibility to charges that it will mete out "victors' justice."

The court is also operating not only under its own rules — laid out when the court was created in 2003 while Iraq was still run by American administrators — but also by a 1971 Saddam-era criminal law that some have criticized as not up to international standards.

That law says the judges can issue a guilty verdict if they are "satisfied" by the evidence — seen as lower standard of proof than "convinced beyond a reasonable doubt."

Saddam's defense lawyer Khalil al-Dulaimi said Tuesday he would ask for the postponement so he can better prepare the case.

He will also challenge the special tribunal's competence to try the case, arguing that Saddam remains the legitimate president and the court is illegal, because it was created under U.S. occupation.