Saddam Hussein's capture means he could face a trial by a newly created Iraqi tribunal -- and a possible death penalty.

The idea of involving the United Nations and eschewing capital punishment, as advocated by human rights activists and others, has so far found little favor with the United States or Iraq's U.S.-backed Governing Council.

"We want Saddam to get what he deserves," Amar al-Hakim, a senior member of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, a Shi'ite party, said on Sunday.

"I believe he will be sentenced to hundreds of death sentences at a fair trial because he's responsible for all the massacres and crimes in Iraq," said Hakim.

Such sentiments are widespread in Iraq, but rights groups say it is vital that any trial aims to achieve justice, not revenge. It must be seen to be independent, impartial and fair.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch group said the Iraqi Governing Council must not mount a political show trial.

"It's important that the Iraqi people feel ownership of (Saddam's) trial," said Kenneth Roth, the group's executive director. "But it's equally important that the trial not be perceived as vengeful justice. For that reason, international jurists must be involved in the process."

"SADDAM'S FATE UP TO IRAQIS"

U.S. officials have not spelled out what should be done with Saddam, but British Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Sunday it was for Iraqis to determine how their former ruler was treated.

"Saddam has gone from power, he won't be coming back. That Iraqi people now know and it is they who will decide his fate."

A public trial could help Iraqis come to terms with more than three decades of Baathist rule that was guided by a man who became a byword for cruelty and killing on a vast scale.

"All the atrocities of this regime will be in the open," said Abdel-Monem Said, director of Egypt's Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, referring to a Saddam trial.

The Iraqi Governing Council set up a special tribunal on Wednesday to try Saddam and his key associates, saying the United States had agreed to hand over those in its custody.

Ahmad Chalabi, a senior council member, said at the time the tribunal could try Saddam for "crimes against humanity and the Iraqi people," in absentia if he was not caught.

It seems questionable that such a tribunal could also try the ousted president on war crimes charges that might be brought in relation to Iraq's 1980-88 conflict with Iran, its 1990 invasion of Kuwait or its fight with U.S.-led forces this year.

Some international lawyers question whether Iraq's battered judicial system could handle such weighty processes unaided.

"God knows how long it would take before normal life has resumed in Iraq and they can find competent people (for a tribunal)," said Dutch lawyer Michail Wladimiroff, who was a "friend of the court" appointed to ensure a fair trial for Slobodan Milosevic at the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague.

Wladimiroff said the United States should consider involving the United Nations in putting Saddam on trial in a court like the U.N.-backed tribunal in Sierra Leone, which has indicted former Liberian President Charles Taylor.

Such a court would use both local and international judges and lawyers. "Start a mixed tribunal and accept the involvement of the U.N. I do hope they allow others to come in," he said.

An Iraqi government to be formed by June will be free to re-establish the death penalty, which was suspended by the U.S.-led administration after the fall of Baghdad in April.

Many countries, including European allies of the United States, would feel uneasy about application of the death penalty, which is banned in the European Union.

But few doubt Saddam has much blood on his hands.

Since his overthrow, officials have announced the discovery of 260 suspected mass graves across Iraq that they say could contain up to 300,000 bodies.

Of the 55 Iraqis on a U.S. most-wanted list, 39 have now been captured and two -- Saddam's sons Uday and Qusay -- killed. Before Saddam's capture, officials had said trials would begin next year with the prosecution of some of those in custody.

Close

Today's Top News		Top International News
+Saddam detained; Bush says attacks not over ( 2003-12-15) +Saddam 'caught like a rat' in a hole ( 2003-12-15) +Dramatic increase of energy consumption predicted ( 2003-12-15) +Sectors scrutinized in wage wrangle ( 2003-12-15) +Saddam's capture gives Bush huge boost ( 2003-12-15)		+Saddam's arrest to sharpen debate on Iraq tribunal ( 2003-12-15) +Saddam 'caught like a rat' in a hole ( 2003-12-15) +Saddam detained; Bush says attacks not over ( 2003-12-15) +Saddam's capture gives Bush huge boost ( 2003-12-15) +World leaders thrilled by capture of Hussein ( 2003-12-14)