Hussein verdict's timing questioned

Some say it's meant to give GOP a boost

By Aamer Madhani
Chicago Tribune

November 5, 2006

BAGHDAD -- After a three-month wait, the judges in Saddam Hussein's first trial for crimes against humanity are scheduled to deliver their verdict Sunday, just two days before U.S. voters go to the polls in closely contested congressional elections.

U.S. and Iraqi officials say the timing of the expected guilty verdict and sentencing is sheer coincidence. But Hussein's lawyers and others, including left-leaning bloggers, charge that the date was pushed back to give the Bush administration and GOP candidates a positive headline from Baghdad after a violent month in which more than 100 U.S. troops were killed.

The five-member panel overseeing the trial of the former president and his seven co-defendants originally set the verdict and sentencing for Oct. 16, but last month it announced an extension until Sunday to review the evidence. If convicted, Hussein could be sentenced to death by hanging, though the verdict is subject to appeal.

Another delay is possible, but U.S. officials say they expect a decision Sunday. Iraqi leaders have braced for violence, rescinding leaves for military officers and deploying troops to Dujail out of fear of reprisal killings by former regime elements.

Raid Juhi, a spokesman for the Iraqi High Tribunal, said that "it is a 100 percent Iraqi court" and that U.S. officials had nothing to do with the date the court chose to announce the verdict.

"It is absolutely coincidence," Juhi said. "The Iraqi court cares nothing about the American midterm elections."

Others have found that assertion hard to believe.

(The rest is here.)